Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots
Modern Garden Decor: Large Outdoor Water Fountains and their Roots 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. The main purpose of a fountain was originally strictly functional. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to provide them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Until the late nineteenth, century most water fountains functioned using the force of 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. Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also provided clean, fresh drinking water. The main components used by the Romans to create their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. Muslims and Moorish garden designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller models of the gardens of paradise. To show his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains constructed to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
Since indoor plumbing became the standard of the day for fresh, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely decorative. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
These days, fountains decorate public areas and are used to pay tribute to individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Characteristics of Outdoor Sculpture in Archaic Greece
Characteristics of Outdoor Sculpture in Archaic Greece
The primitive Greeks manufactured the very first freestanding statuary, an impressive achievement as most sculptures up until then had been reliefs cut into walls and pillars. For the most part the statues, or kouros figures, were of adolescent and nice-looking male or female (kore) Greeks. Regarded as by Greeks to characterize splendour, the kouroi were shaped into rigid, forward facing positions with one foot outstretched, and the male statues were always nude, well-developed, and fit. Life-sized versions of the kouroi appeared beginning in 650 BC. The Archaic period was turbulent for the Greeks as they evolved into more refined forms of government and art, and gained more data about the peoples and cultures outside of Greece. However, the Greek civilization was not slowed down by these battles.