Thunder Fountain or Donnerbrunnen at the New Market in Vienna. - Vienna Austria - ECTV

Completed in 1739, the Donnerbrunnen was actually a municipal commission. Given the date, you might expect imperial reliefs or Christian motifs to dominate.
Not so.
This was possibly the first piece of such public art to forego the usual religious and Habsburgian imagery.
That novel secular approach perhaps reflected the growing self-confidence of the city authorities in an era of absolute monarchs. Though I can imagine there were one or two nervous faces at the unveiling.
(Apparently, that unveiling took place on the Emperor’s names day, which seems like a sensible way to placate any potential imperial ire.)
The Donnerbrunnen name comes from the sculptor who designed the fountain: Georg Raphael Donner (1693-1741). Another name you find used is the Providentiabrunnen, since the central figure is Providentia: the personification of the virtue of making provision for the future.
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