Bernini: The Master of Italy's Most Impressive Water Fountains

Bernini: Master Italy's Impressive Water Fountains 9909493440607407027.jpg

Bernini: The Master of Italy's Most Impressive Water Fountains The Barcaccia, a stunning water fountain constructed at the base of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna, was Bernini's earliest water fountain. To this day, you will see Roman residents and vacation goers occupying this space to revel in chit chatter and being among other people. Today, the city streets around Bernini's fountain are a trendy place where people go to gather, something which the artist would have been pleased to learn. In around 1630, Pope Urbano VIII helped Bernini start off his professional life with the construction of his first water fountain. People can now see the fountain as an illustration of a commanding ship slowly sinking into the Mediterranean Sea. Period reports dating back to the 16th century show that the fountain was constructed as a monument to those who lost their lives in the great flooding of the Tevere. In 1665 Bernini journeyed to France, in what was to be his only extended absence from Italy.

The Source of Modern Day Outdoor Garden Fountains

The Source of Modern Day Outdoor Garden Fountains Hundreds of ancient Greek records were translated into Latin under the auspices of the scholarly Pope Nicholas V, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455. Source Modern Day Outdoor Garden Fountains 769276423031132.jpg

Source Modern Day Outdoor Garden Fountains 769276423031132.jpg

Embellishing Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the heart of his objectives. Beginning 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 repair at the behest of the Pope. A mostra, a monumental commemorative fountain built by ancient Romans to mark the point of entry of an aqueduct, was a custom which was restored by Nicholas V. The architect Leon Battista Alberti was commissioned by the Pope to build a wall fountain where we now see the Trevi Fountain. The water which eventually supplied the Trevi Fountain as well as the renown baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona came from the modified aqueduct which he had renovated.

Aqueducts: The Solution to Rome's Water Problems

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Aqueducts: The Solution to Rome's Water Problems Previous to 273, when the very first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was established in Roma, residents who lived on hillsides had to travel further down to collect their water from natural sources. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technologies readily available at the time to supply water to areas of higher elevation. To supply water to Pincian Hill in the early 16th century, they employed the new method of redirecting the movement from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct’s underground channel. During the length of the aqueduct’s channel were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. Although they were originally designed to make it possible to service the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started out using the manholes to gather water from the channel, starting when he acquired the property in 1543. He didn’t get adequate water from the cistern that he had established on his residential property to obtain rainwater. By using an opening to the aqueduct that ran underneath his property, he was able to meet his water demands.

The Defining Characteristics of Ancient Greek Statuary

The Defining Characteristics of Ancient Greek Statuary Defining Characteristics Ancient Greek Statuary 758806064407100.jpg

The primitive Greeks built the 1st freestanding statuary, an impressive achievement as most sculptures up until then had been reliefs cut into walls and pillars. For the most part the statues, or kouros figures, were of young and nice-looking male or female (kore) Greeks. Regarded as by Greeks to characterize splendour, the kouroi were shaped into inflexible, forward facing positions with one foot outstretched, and the male statues were always nude, muscular, and fit. Life-sized versions of the kouroi appeared beginning in 650 BC. A huge period of improvement for the Greeks, the Archaic period brought about more forms of government, expressions of art, and a greater comprehension of people and customs outside of Greece. Throughout this time and other periods of historic tumultuousness, encounters often occurred, most notably battles fought amongst city-states such as the Arcadian wars and the Spartan infiltration of Samos.