Archaic Greek Art: Garden Statuary

Architectural Sculpture in Historic Greece

Your Outdoor Living Area: An Ideal Place for a Fountain
Your Outdoor Living Area: An Ideal Place for a Fountain The area outside your home can be enhanced by including a wall or a garden fountain to your landscaping or garden project. Many modern designers and craftsmen have been influenced by historical fountains and water features. You can also strengthen the connection to the past by incorporating one of these to your home's interior design. Among the many attributes of these beautiful garden fountains is the water and moisture they release into the air which attracts birds and other wild life as well as helps to balance the ecosystem. Birds drawn to a fountain or bird bath often scare away irritating flying pests, for instance.
The space necessary for a cascading or spouting fountain is considerable, so a wall fountain is the perfect size for a small yard. There are two types of fountains to pick from including the freestanding version with a flat back and an attached basin set up against a fence or a wall in your yard, or the wall-mounted, self-contained variety which is suspended directly on a wall. A water feature can be added to an existing wall if you include some kind of fountain mask as well as a basin to gather the water below. The plumbing and masonry work necessary for this type of work requires expertise, so it is best to employ a skilled person rather than do it yourself.
The Origins Of Outdoor Fountains
The Origins Of Outdoor Fountains A fountain, an incredible piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for a noteworthy effect.From the onset, outdoor fountains were simply meant to serve as functional elements. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to supply them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Used until the 19th 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. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to decorate living areas and memorialize the designer. Roman fountains usually depicted imagery of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. Fountains played a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exert his power over nature. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries manufactured baroque decorative fountains to glorify 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 functioned only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to deliver recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the uses of modern-day fountains.