Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots
Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots A fountain, an incredible 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.From the beginning, outdoor fountains were simply meant to serve as functional elements. Inhabitants 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.
Used until the nineteenth 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 gravity. 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 wildlife and heroes were frequently seen on Roman fountains. Throughout the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden planners incorporated fountains to create smaller depictions of the gardens of paradise. To demonstrate his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden 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.
Since indoor plumbing became the norm of the day for clean, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely decorative. Amazing water effects and recycled water were made possible by replacing the force of gravity with mechanical pumps.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the purposes of modern-day fountains.
Inventors of the First Water Fountains
Inventors of the First Water Fountains Water feature designers were multi-talented individuals from the 16th to the late 18th century, often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one. Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, was renowned as an inspired intellect, inventor and scientific virtuoso. The forces of nature guided him to investigate the properties and motion of water, and due to his curiosity, he methodically documented his observations in his now famed notebooks. Ingenious water displays complete of symbolic meaning and all-natural grace changed private villa settings when early Italian fountain creators coupled creativity with hydraulic and landscaping abilities. The humanist Pirro Ligorio, distinguished for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden design, delivered the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli. Well versed in humanistic subjects as well as ancient technical texts, some other water fountain designers were masterminding the extraordinary water marbles, water properties and water jokes for the numerous mansions around Florence.