Bernini's Garden Fountains
Bernini's Garden Fountains There are any number of renowned Roman water fountains in its city center. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, one of the finest sculptors and artists of the 17th century designed, conceptualized and produced almost all of them. Also a city architect, he had abilities as a water feature designer, and remnants of his life's work are noticeable throughout the roads of Rome.
Bernini's father, a renowned Florentine sculptor, mentored his young son, and they ultimately moved to Rome, in order to fully express their art, primarily in the form of public water fountains and water features. An excellent worker, the young Bernini acquired compliments and patronage of various popes and important artists. He was initially renowned for his sculpture. An authority in ancient Greek architecture, he utilized this knowledge as a starting point and melded it seamlessly with Roman marble, most famously in the Vatican. He was affected by many a great artists, however, Michelangelo had the biggest effect on his work.
The Original Water Fountain Creative Designers
The Original Water Fountain Creative Designers Often working as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one, from the 16th to the late 18th century, fountain designers were multi-talented individuals, Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was notable as a ingenious genius, inventor and scientific expert.
With his tremendous fascination about the forces of nature, he investigated the characteristics and motion of water and methodically annotated his examinations in his now celebrated notebooks. Ingenious water displays complete with symbolic significance and all-natural wonder changed private villa settings when early Italian water fountain creators coupled creativity with hydraulic and landscaping skill. The humanist Pirro Ligorio, celebrated for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, provided the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. Other water feature designers, masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water functions and water jokes for the various domains near Florence, were tried and tested in humanist subjects and classical scientific texts.
The Genesis Of Garden Fountains
The Genesis Of Garden Fountains A fountain, an amazing 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.Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose.
Residents of cities, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains had to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. 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 not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the artist who created it. Bronze or stone masks of animals and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to re-create the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. To mark the entrance 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 entered the city of Rome
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 amazing water displays.
Modern fountains are used to adorn community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enrich recreational and entertainment events.