Ancient Fountain Designers

Ancient Fountain Designers Often serving as architects, sculptors, designers, engineers and discerning scholars, all in one, fountain designers were multi-faceted people from the 16th to the late 18th century. Throughout the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the creator as an inspired master, creator and scientific virtuoso. With his astounding curiosity concerning the forces of nature, he examined the qualities and mobility of water and also carefully annotated his findings in his now recognized notebooks. Combining inventiveness with hydraulic and horticultural expertise, early Italian fountain creators changed private villa settings into amazing water displays complete with emblematic implications and natural elegance. Ancient Fountain Designers 1043391377794827.jpg

Known for his incredible skill in archeology, design and garden creations, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, delivered the vision behind the magnificence in Tivoli. Masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water features and water jokes for the assorted estates near Florence, other fountain builders were well versed in humanist themes and ancient scientific texts.

Contemporary Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings

Contemporary Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings A water fountain is an architectural piece that pours water into a basin or jets it high into the air in order to supply drinking water, as well as for decorative purposes.

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 drinking water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Until the late 19th, century most water fountains functioned 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. Contemporary Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains Beginnings 50581426015.jpg Fountains were an excellent source of water, and also served to adorn living areas and memorialize the artist. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created 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.

The end of the nineteenth century saw the increase in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to permit fountains to bring in clean water and allow for amazing water displays.

Modern-day fountains function mostly as decoration for open spaces, to honor individuals or events, and enhance entertainment and recreational events.

The Circulation of Garden Water Fountains Engineering Knowledge in Europe

The Circulation of Garden Water Fountains Engineering Knowledge in Europe Throughout the European countries, the principal means of dissiminating practical hydraulic facts and fountain design ideas were the circulated pamphlets and illustrated books of the day, which contributed to the development of scientific technology. An unnamed French fountain designer became an internationally celebrated hydraulic innovator in the later part of the 1500's. By creating landscapes and grottoes with integrated and clever water attributes, he started off his occupation in Italy by earning Royal mandates in Brussels, London and Germany. In France, towards the end of his lifetime, he wrote “The Principle of Moving Forces”, a book that became the essential text on hydraulic mechanics and engineering. Classical antiquity hydraulic developments were elaborated as well as updates to key classical antiquity hydraulic advancements in the book. Dominant among these works were those of Archimedes, the developer of the water screw, a mechanized method of transferring water. Natural light heated the liquid in a pair of concealed containers next to the decorative water feature were displayed in an illustration. The end result: the fountain is triggered by the hot liquid expanding and ascending up the piping. Pumps, water wheels, water features and backyard pond concepts are documented in the text.