The Original Water Feature Manufacturers
The Original Water Feature Manufacturers Often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one, from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century, fountain designers were multi-talented people, Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was celebrated as an inspired genius, inventor and scientific virtuoso. He methodically annotated his observations in his now much celebrated notebooks about his investigations into the forces of nature and the properties and motion of water. Early Italian water fountain designers transformed private villa settings into ingenious water exhibits complete of symbolic meaning and natural elegance by coupling imagination with hydraulic and horticultural talent. Known for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, offered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. For the many lands in the vicinity of Florence, other water feature engineers were well versed in humanist themes as well as ancient technical texts, masterminding the incredible water marbles, water attributes and water jokes.
Modern Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings
Modern Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings 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 an extraordinary effect.From the beginning, outdoor fountains were soley meant to serve as functional elements. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to provide drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be more elevated and closer to a water supply, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Artists thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to supply clean water and honor the artist responsible for building it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes.
To replicate 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 illustrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. 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 location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to permit fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Contemporary fountains are used to embellish community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.