Where did Garden Water Fountains Originate from?
Where did Garden Water Fountains Originate from? The dramatic or decorative 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 functional purpose.
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 linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their origin of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from the power of gravity. 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 used by Romans to beautify their fountains. Muslims and Moorish garden designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller models of the gardens of paradise. Fountains enjoyed a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exercise his power over nature. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created baroque decorative fountains to exalt the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Urban fountains created at the end of the nineteenth served only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the essential drinking water. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create unique water effects.
Nowadays, fountains adorn public spaces and are used to recognize individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Ancient Garden Fountain Designers
Ancient Garden Fountain Designers
Fountain designers were multi-talented individuals from the 16th to the late 18th century, often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one person. Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was notable as an inspired master, inventor and scientific expert. The forces of nature led him to research the properties and movement of water, and due to his curiosity, he carefully recorded his experiences in his now celebrated notebooks. Early Italian water fountain engineers changed private villa settings into inspiring water showcases complete of emblematic meaning and natural beauty by combining creativity with hydraulic and horticultural expertise. The humanist Pirro Ligorio, distinguished for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, delivered the vision behind the splendors in Tivoli. Other fountain developers, masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water features and water humor for the various estates in the vicinity of Florence, were well-versed in humanist subjects and traditional scientific readings.