Ancient Water Fountain Designers
Ancient Water Fountain Designers Often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one, from the 16th to the late 18th century, fountain designers were multi-faceted individuals, Leonardo da Vinci as a imaginative master, inventor and scientific virtuoso exemplified this Renaissance artist. He methodically documented his observations in his currently famed notebooks, after his enormous curiosity in the forces of nature inspired him to investigate the qualities and mobility of water. Innovative water exhibits loaded with symbolic significance and all-natural wonder changed private villa settings when early Italian water feature designers combined creativity with hydraulic and gardening expertise. The humanist Pirro Ligorio provided the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli and was renowned for his skill in archeology, architecture and garden concepts. For the assorted properties in the vicinity of Florence, other water fountain creators were well versed in humanistic themes and classical scientific texts, masterminding the excellent water marbles, water highlights and water jokes.Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome
Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome
Rome’s very first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, inhabitants residing at higher elevations had to rely on natural streams for their water. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technologies around at the time to supply water to areas of higher elevation. In the very early sixteenth century, the city began to use the water that flowed beneath the earth through Acqua Vergine to furnish water to Pincian Hill. During the length of the aqueduct’s route were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. The manholes made it easier to maintain the channel, but it was also achievable to use buckets to pull water from the aqueduct, as we witnessed with Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi when he operated the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he passed away. He didn’t get adequate water from the cistern that he had established on his residential property to gather rainwater. Thankfully, the aqueduct sat under his residence, and he had a shaft established to give him accessibility.
Where did Fountains Begin?
Where did Fountains Begin? The incredible architecture of a fountain allows it to provide clean water or shoot water high into air for dramatic effect and it can also serve as an excellent design feature to complement your home. From the onset, outdoor fountains were simply there to serve as functional elements. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, from aqueducts or springs nearby. 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. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to adorn living areas and celebrate the artist. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often used by Romans to decorate their fountains. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. To demonstrate his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to extol their positions by adding beautiful baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.
The end of the nineteenth century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Gravity was replaced by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Modern fountains are used to adorn community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enrich recreational and entertainment events.