Where did Landscape Fountains Come From?
Where did Landscape Fountains Come From? The dramatic or decorative effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, in addition to supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.From the beginning, outdoor fountains were simply meant to serve as functional elements. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to provide potable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains.
Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also generated clean, fresh drinking water. The main components used by the Romans to create their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden planners included fountains to create smaller variations of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were glorified with baroque style fountains built to mark the place of entry of Roman aqueducts.
Urban fountains built at the end of the 19th century functioned only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the essential drinking water. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to provide recycled water into living spaces as well as create unique water effects.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the purposes of modern-day fountains.
The Original Garden Fountain Designers
The Original Garden Fountain Designers Water fountain designers were multi-talented people from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century, often working as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one person. Throughout the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the artist as a creative master, inventor and scientific virtuoso. The forces of nature guided him to explore the properties and movement of water, and due to his fascination, he systematically documented his ideas in his now celebrated notebooks. Coupling imagination with hydraulic and gardening abilities, early Italian water fountain developers transformed private villa settings into innovative water displays loaded of symbolic implications and natural elegance. The humanist Pirro Ligorio supplied the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli and was distinguished for his abilities in archeology, architecture and garden design. Masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water attributes and water pranks for the assorted mansions in the vicinity of Florence, some other water feature builders were well versed in humanistic issues and time-honored scientific texts.