The History of Outdoor Garden Fountains

The History of Outdoor Garden Fountains Pope Nicholas V, himself a well educated man, governed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of old classic Greek documents into Latin. In order to make Rome worthy of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope resolved to embellish the beauty of the city. Restoration of the Acqua Vergine, a desolate Roman aqueduct which had transported fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, began in 1453 at the bidding of the Pope. A mostra, a monumental celebratory fountain built by ancient Romans to mark the point of entry of an aqueduct, was a custom which was restored by Nicholas V. The present-day site of the Trevi Fountain was formerly occupied by a wall fountain commissioned by the Pope and constructed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti. The aqueduct he had refurbished included modifications and extensions which eventually allowed it to supply water to the Trevi Fountain as well as the famed baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona.

Architectural Statuary in Old Greece

Architectural Statuary in Old Greece Architectural Statuary Old Greece 991883615734342621.jpg

Historically, the vast majority of sculptors were paid by the temples to decorate the elaborate pillars and archways with renderings of the gods, however as the era came to a close it grew to be more accepted for sculptors to portray regular people as well because many Greeks had begun to think of their institution as superstitious rather than sacred. Portraiture came to be prevalent as well, and would be accepted by the Romans when they conquered the Greeks, and quite often wealthy families would commission a depiction of their progenitors to be placed inside their huge familial burial tombs. A time of artistic enhancement, the use of sculpture and other art forms transformed through the Greek Classical period, so it is inaccurate to suggest that the arts served only one function. Whether to gratify a visual desire or to rejoice in the figures of religion, Greek sculpture was actually an imaginative practice in the ancient world, which may be what draws our attention currently.