"Old School" Fountain Manufacturers

Often working as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one, from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century, fountain designers were multi-faceted individuals, Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was celebrated as an inspired genius, inventor and scientific virtuoso. With his tremendous fascination about the forces of nature, he researched the properties and motion of water and systematically documented his examinations in his now celebrated notebooks. Early Italian water fountain designers converted private villa configurations into inventive water displays full with symbolic meaning and natural elegance by coupling creativity with hydraulic and gardening talent. Known for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden creations, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, delivered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. Masterminding the excellent water marbles, water features and water pranks for the assorted estates in the vicinity of Florence, other water feature creators were well versed in humanist issues as well as time-honored technical texts.

The First Contemporary Wall Fountains

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The First Contemporary Wall Fountains Pope Nicholas V, himself a well educated man, reigned the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of ancient classic Greek documents into Latin. He undertook the beautification of Rome to turn it into the worthy seat of the Christian world. Starting in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent reconstruction at the bidding of the Pope. The ancient Roman custom of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the space previously filled with a wall fountain crafted by Leon Battista Albert, an architect commissioned by the Pope. The Trevi Fountain as well as the well-known baroque fountains found in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona were eventually supplied with water from the altered aqueduct he had rebuilt.