Contemporary Garden Decoration: Garden Fountains and their Beginnings
Contemporary Garden Decoration: Garden Fountains and their Beginnings The dramatic or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, as well as supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.
From the beginning, outdoor fountains were soley 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 source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from the power of gravity. Designers thought of fountains as wonderful additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to provide clean water and celebrate the designer responsible for creating it. Bronze or stone masks of animals and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. To mark the entryway of the restored Roman aqueducts, the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries commissioned the building of baroque style fountains in the spot where the aqueducts arrived in the city of Rome
Urban fountains built at the end of the nineteenth served only as decorative and celebratory ornaments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Nowadays, fountains adorn public areas and are used to recognize individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Ancient Greece: Cultural Statues
Ancient Greece: Cultural Statues Even though the majority of sculptors were remunerated by the temples to decorate the elaborate columns and archways with renderings of the gods, as the period came to a close, it became more prevalent for sculptors to represent ordinary people as well mainly because many of Greeks had begun to think of their religion as superstitious rather than sacred.
Rich families would often times commission a rendering of their ancestors for their large familial burial tombs; portraiture also became prevalent and would be appropriated by the Romans upon their acquisition of Greek society. A time of artistic enhancement, the use of sculpture and alternate art forms transformed throughout the Greek Classical period, so it is not entirely accurate to assume that the arts provided only one function. Greek sculpture was actually a cutting-edge component of antiquity, whether the cause was faith based fervor or aesthetic fulfillment, and its modern quality may be what endears it to us today.
Characteristics of Garden Statues in Archaic Greece
Characteristics of Garden Statues in Archaic Greece
Archaic Greeks were well known for developing the first freestanding statuary; up till then, most carvings were made out of walls and pillars as reliefs. Kouros figures, sculptures of adolescent, good-looking male or female (kore) Greeks, made up the bulk of the sculptures. The kouroi were seen by the Greeks to embody beauty and were sculpted with one foot leading and an uncompromising firmness to their forward-facing poses; the male statues were always strapping, brawny, and naked. In 650 BC, life-sized variations of the kouroi began to be observed. The Archaic period was tumultuous for the Greeks as they progressed into more polished forms of government and art, and acquired more information and facts about the peoples and cultures outside of Greece. During this time and other durations of historical tumultuousness, encounters often occurred, including wars fought amongst city-states such as the Arcadian wars and the Spartan infiltration of Samos.