Bernini: The Master of Italy's Most Impressive Water Fountains
Bernini: The Master of Italy's Most Impressive Water Fountains One can find Bernini's earliest masterpiece, the Barcaccia fountain, at the foot of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna.
To this day, you will see Roman locals and vacation goers occupying this space to revel in chit chatter and being among other people. The streets surrounding his fountain have come to be one of the city’s most fashionable gathering places, something which would certainly have pleased Bernini himself. In around 1630, Pope Urbano VIII helped Bernini start off his career with the construction of his first fountain. Depicted in the fountain's design is a large vessel slowly sinking into the Mediterranean Sea. The great flooding of the Tevere that blanketed the whole region with water in the 16th was commemorated by this momentous fountain as recorded by documents dating back to this time. Absenting himself from Italy only once in his life for a lengthy time period, in 1665 Bernini traveled to France.
The Genesis Of Fountains
The Genesis Of Fountains The dramatic or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, in addition to supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.
Originally, fountains only served a functional purpose. Residents of urban areas, townships and small towns utilized them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains needed to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Until the late nineteenth, century most water fountains operated using gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a supply of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Fountains were an excellent source of water, and also served to decorate living areas and celebrate the designer. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller models of the gardens of paradise. To show his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains constructed to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
Indoor plumbing became the main source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby limiting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
These days, fountains decorate public areas and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.