Bernini’s First Italian Fountains
Bernini’s First Italian Fountains The Barcaccia, Bernini's very first water fountain, is a magnificent chef d'oeuvre built at the base of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna.
Roman residents and site seers who appreciate verbal exchanges as well as being the company of others still flood this spot. The streets surrounding his water fountain have come to be one of the city’s most trendy gathering places, something which would certainly have pleased Bernini himself. The master's first water fountain of his career was built at around 1630 at the request of Pope Urbano VIII. Illustrated in the fountain's design is a large ship slowly sinking into the Mediterranean Sea. The great flooding of the Tevere that covered the whole region with water in the 16th was memorialized by this momentous fountain as recorded by documents dating back to this time. In 1665 Bernini traveled to France, in what was to be his sole prolonged absence from Italy.
The Dissemination of Fountain Design Innovation
The Dissemination of Fountain Design Innovation Dissiminating practical hydraulic knowledge and fountain design ideas throughout Europe was accomplished with the published papers and illustrated publications of the time.
In the later part of the 1500's, a French fountain developer (whose name has been lost) was the internationally renowned hydraulics pioneer. With imperial mandates in Brussels, London and Germany, he began his work in Italy, acquiring expertise in garden design and grottoes with built-in and clever water features. He authored a book named “The Principles of Moving Forces” towards the end of his lifetime while in France that turned into the basic tome on hydraulic technology and engineering. Classical antiquity hydraulic discoveries were elaborated as well as updates to essential classical antiquity hydraulic advancements in the publication. As a mechanized means to push water, Archimedes made the water screw, fundamental among vital hydraulic innovations. A pair of hidden containers heated up by sunlight in an space next to the creative fountain were presented in an illustration. Activating the water fountain is heated liquid which expands and ascends to seal up the water lines. Pumps, water wheels, water features and backyard pond concepts are covered in the book.
Contemporary Garden Decor: Fountains and their Roots
Contemporary Garden Decor: Fountains and their Roots
A water fountain is an architectural piece that pours water into a basin or jets it high into the air in order to supply drinking water, as well as for decorative purposes. From the beginning, outdoor fountains were soley meant to serve as functional elements. Residents of urban areas, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains had to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water source, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the artist who created it. The main materials used by the Romans to create their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly depicting animals or heroes. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains built to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
The end of the 19th century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. The creation of unique water effects and the recycling of water were 2 things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
These days, fountains decorate public areas and are used to pay tribute to individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.