Where did Large Outdoor Fountains Begin?

Large Outdoor Fountains Begin? 641362979203704.jpg

Where did Large Outdoor Fountains Begin? The dramatic or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, as well as providing drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.

Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to supply them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and higher than the fountain so that gravity could make the water move downwards or jet high into the air. Acting as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also supplied clean, fresh drinking water. Bronze or stone masks of animals and heroes were frequently seen on Roman fountains. Throughout the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden planners incorporated fountains to create smaller variations of the gardens of paradise. Fountains played a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exert his power over nature. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created baroque decorative fountains to glorify the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.

Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity enabled fountains to bring 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.

Creators of the First Water Fountains

Creators First Water Fountains 56593714.jpg

Creators of the First Water Fountains Multi-talented individuals, fountain artists from the 16th to the late 18th century typically served as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one. Leonardo da Vinci as a imaginative genius, inventor and scientific virtuoso exemplified this Renaissance creator. He systematically reported his observations in his now famed notebooks about his studies into the forces of nature and the properties and motion of water. Brilliant water exhibits full of symbolic significance and natural wonder transformed private villa settings when early Italian water feature creators combined creativity with hydraulic and landscaping skill. Known for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, delivered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. Other fountain developers, masterminding the incredible water marbles, water functions and water humor for the various mansions near Florence, were tried and tested in humanistic subject areas and time-honored scientific readings.

The Influence of the Norman Invasion on Anglo Saxon Garden Design

The Influence of the Norman Invasion on Anglo Saxon Garden Design The arrival of the Normans in the second half of the 11th century irreparably transformed The Anglo-Saxon lifestyle. The talent of the Normans exceeded the Anglo-Saxons' in architecture and farming at the time of the conquest. But before concentrating on home-life or having the occasion to contemplate domestic architecture or decoration, the Normans had to subjugate an entire population. Castles were more standard constructions and often constructed on blustery hills, where their people spent both time and space to practicing offense and defense, while monasteries were major stone buildings, regularly situated in the widest, most fruitful hollows. Tranquil pastimes such as gardening were out of place in these destitute citadels. Berkeley Castle, perhaps the most unspoiled model of the early Anglo-Norman style of architecture, still exists today. The keep is said to date from the time of William the Conqueror. An enormous terrace encompasses the building, serving as an impediment to attackers wanting to excavate under the castle walls. On one of these terraces sits a stylish bowling green: it is covered in grass and flanked by an old yew hedge that is created into the shape of rough ramparts.