The Many Reasons to Include a Wall Fountain
The Many Reasons to Include a Wall Fountain
The inclusion of a wall fountain or an outdoor garden fountain is an excellent way to beautify your yard or garden design. Any number of present-day designers and fountain artisans have found ideas in the fountains and water features of the past. Therefore, in order to link your home to earlier times, include one these in your home decor. Among the many properties of these beautiful garden water features is the water and moisture they release into the air which attracts birds and other wild life as well as helps to balance the ecosystem. For instance, irritating flying insects are usually discouraged by the birds drawn to the fountain or birdbath. The area required for a cascading or spouting fountain is substantial, so a wall fountain is the ideal size for a small yard. There are two types of fountains to pick from including the freestanding version with a flat back and an attached basin set up against a fence or a wall in your yard, or the wall-mounted, self-contained version which is suspended directly on a wall. Make certain to include a fountain mask to an existing wall and a basin to collect the water at the bottom if you wish to put in a fountain to your living area. The plumbing and masonry work necessary for this kind of work requires training, so it is best to employ a skilled person rather than do it yourself.
The First Contemporary Outdoor Wall Fountains
The First Contemporary Outdoor Wall Fountains
Pope Nicholas V, himself a learned man, governed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of ancient classical Greek documents into Latin. In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope decided to enhance the beauty of the city. Beginning in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent reconstruction at the behest of the Pope. The ancient Roman custom of building an imposing commemorative fountain at the point where an aqueduct arrived, also known as a mostra, was revived by Nicholas V. The present-day site of the Trevi Fountain was formerly occupied by a wall fountain commissioned by the Pope and built by the architect Leon Battista Alberti. The water which eventually provided 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.
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from?
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from?
The dramatic or decorative effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, as well as supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property. Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, via aqueducts or springs nearby. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also provided clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times used by Romans to decorate their fountains. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. 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 location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
The end of the 19th century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to provide drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. The introduction of unique water effects and the recycling of water were 2 things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the uses of modern-day fountains.
The Original Water Fountain Designers
The Original Water Fountain Designers Commonly serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars, all in one, fountain creators were multi-talented people from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century.
Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was renowned as a imaginative master, inventor and scientific expert. He carefully captured his ideas in his currently celebrated notebooks, after his enormous curiosity in the forces of nature inspired him to examine the characteristics and mobility of water. Early Italian water feature builders altered private villa settings into inventive water displays complete of symbolic meaning and natural elegance by combining imagination with hydraulic and horticultural talent. Known for his incredible skill in archeology, design and garden creations, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, delivered the vision behind the splendors in Tivoli. Masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water features and water jokes for the various properties in the vicinity of Florence, other fountain creators were well versed in humanistic issues and time-honored scientific texts.