Contemporary Garden Decor: Fountains and their Beginnings
Contemporary Garden Decor: Fountains and their Beginnings 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.The primary purpose of a fountain was originally strictly functional. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to provide them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from 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 designer who created it. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to re-create the gardens of paradise.
King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate 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 place of entry of Roman aqueducts.
Urban fountains created at the end of the 19th century served only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to permit fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Modern-day fountains serve mostly as decoration for community spaces, to honor individuals or events, and enhance entertainment and recreational gatherings.
Garden Fountains: The Perfect Decor Accessory to Find Tranquility
Garden Fountains: The Perfect Decor Accessory to Find Tranquility
Water gives tranquility to your garden environment. The trickling sounds emerging from your fountain can be helpful in masking any loud sounds in your surroundings. This is a great spot to relax and experience the natural world around you. Considered a great rehabilitation element, many water treatments use big bodies of water such as seas, oceans and rivers in their treatments. So if you desire a little piece of heaven nearby, a pond or fountain in your own garden is the answer.
Archaic Greek Artwork: Outdoor Statuary
Archaic Greek Artwork: Outdoor Statuary The Archaic Greeks developed the very first freestanding statuary, an amazing achievement as most sculptures up until then had been reliefs cut into walls and pillars. Younger, appealing male or female (kore) Greeks were the subject matter of most of the statues, or kouros figures.
The kouroi were believed by the Greeks to represent beauty and were sculpted with one foot leading and an uncompromising rigidity to their forward-facing poses; the male statues were always strapping, sinewy, and nude. In 650 BC, life-size variations of the kouroi began to be seen. The Archaic period was turbulent for the Greeks as they evolved into more refined forms of government and art, and obtained more information and facts about the peoples and cultures outside of Greece. And yet these disputes did not stop the growth of the Greek civilization. {
The Original Garden Fountain Designers
The Original Garden Fountain Designers Fountain designers were multi-talented individuals from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century, often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one. Throughout the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci exemplified the artist as a creative intellect, creator and scientific specialist. He systematically documented his examinations in his now much celebrated notebooks about his research into the forces of nature and the qualities and movement of water. Early Italian water fountain builders converted private villa settings into amazing water showcases complete with emblematic meaning and natural beauty by coupling imagination with hydraulic and gardening talent.
The humanist Pirro Ligorio provided the vision behind the splendors in Tivoli and was recognized for his abilities in archeology, architecture and garden concepts. Other fountain designers, masterminding the fantastic water marbles, water attributes and water humor for the countless estates in the vicinity of Florence, were tried and tested in humanist subject areas and time-honored scientific texts.