Where did Large Outdoor Fountains Begin?
Where did Large Outdoor Fountains Begin? 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 enhance your home.Pure practicality was the original purpose of fountains. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to provide drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water flow down or jet high into the air. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to decorate living areas and celebrate the designer. The main materials used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. The fountains seen in the Gardens of Versailles were supposed to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains built to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
Urban fountains built at the end of the nineteenth served only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water.
Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Contemporary fountains are used to adorn public spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.
Creators of the First Outdoor Fountains
Creators of the First Outdoor Fountains Often working as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one, from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century, fountain designers were multi-faceted individuals, Leonardo da Vinci as a imaginative master, inventor and scientific virtuoso exemplified this Renaissance artist. He carefully documented his findings in his currently renowned notebooks, after his tremendous interest in the forces of nature led him to investigate the attributes and mobility of water. Combining inventiveness with hydraulic and gardening mastery, early Italian water fountain designers changed private villa settings into innovative water displays loaded of emblematic meaning and natural wonder. The humanist Pirro Ligorio, distinguished for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, offered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli.
For the many lands in the vicinity of Florence, other water feature creators were well versed in humanist subjects as well as ancient scientific texts, masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water highlights and water antics.