The Origins Of Garden Fountains
The Origins Of Garden Fountains The incredible construction 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. Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to supply drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up to the late 19th century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water move down or shoot high into the air. Designers thought of fountains as wonderful additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to supply clean water and honor the designer responsible for creating it. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were frequently seen on Roman fountains. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate 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 exalt the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Urban fountains made at the end of the nineteenth functioned only as decorative and celebratory ornaments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. The creation of special water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by replacing gravity with mechanical pumps.
Modern-day fountains function mostly as decoration for open spaces, to honor individuals or events, and enhance entertainment and recreational activities.
Sculpture As a Staple of Vintage Art in Ancient Greece
Sculpture As a Staple of Vintage Art in Ancient Greece Archaic Greeks were renowned for developing the first freestanding statuary; up till then, most carvings were made out of walls and pillars as reliefs. Youthful, 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, brawny, and unclothed. In about 650 BC, the variations of the kouroi became life-sized. A significant time of transformation for the Greeks, the Archaic period brought about newer forms of government, expressions of artwork, and a greater comprehension of people and customs outside of Greece. Throughout this time and other durations of historic tumultuousness, encounters often occurred, among them wars fought amongst city-states such as the Arcadian wars and the Spartan invasion of Samos.