Ancient Outdoor Water Feature Designers

Ancient Outdoor Water Feature Designers Water feature designers were multi-talented people 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. Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was celebrated as a creative genius, inventor and scientific virtuoso. The forces of nature inspired him to research the qualities and motion of water, and due to his fascination, he methodically recorded his findings in his now celebrated notebooks. Ancient Outdoor Water Feature Designers 1990422091742.jpg

Combining creativity with hydraulic and horticultural expertise, early Italian fountain designers changed private villa settings into brilliant water exhibits filled of symbolic implications and natural beauty. The humanist Pirro Ligorio, renowned for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, delivered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. Masterminding the excellent water marbles, water features and water jokes for the various estates in the vicinity of Florence, some other fountain builders were well versed in humanistic themes and ancient scientific texts.

Bernini's Water Features

Bernini's Water Features In Rome’s city center, there are many famous fountains. Bernini's Water Features 11906440466.jpg

One of the best ever sculptors and artists of the 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini fashioned, created and constructed nearly all of them. Also a city architect, he had skills as a water feature designer, and records of his life's work are evident throughout the avenues of Rome. Bernini's father, a renowned Florentine sculptor, mentored his young son, and they ultimately moved to Rome, in order to fully express their art, primarily in the form of public water fountains and water features. The young Bernini was an exemplary employee and attained compliments and patronage of significant painters as well as popes. At the beginning he was recognized for his sculptural skills. An expert in classic Greek architecture, he used this knowledge as a platform and melded it flawlessly with Roman marble, most notably in the Vatican. Although many artists had an impact on his work, Michelangelo had the most profound effect.

The Origins of Contemporary Wall Fountains

The Origins of Contemporary Wall Fountains Himself a learned man, Pope Nicholas V headed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 till 1455 and was responsible for the translation of hundreds of age-old documents from their original Greek into Latin. Origins Contemporary Wall Fountains 52482356.jpg

Origins Contemporary Wall Fountains 52482356.jpg

In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope decided to embellish the beauty of the city. Starting in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent restoration at the behest of the Pope. Building a mostra, an imposing commemorative fountain built by ancient Romans to memorialize the entry point of an aqueduct, was a tradition revived by Nicholas V. The architect Leon Battista Alberti was commissioned by the Pope to put up a wall fountain where we now see the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain as well as the renowned baroque fountains located in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona were eventually supplied with water from the modified aqueduct he had reconstructed.