The Genesis Of Outdoor Fountains
The Genesis Of Outdoor Fountains The incredible construction of a fountain allows it to provide clean water or shoot water high into air for dramatic effect and it can also serve as an excellent design feature to enhance your home.The primary purpose of a fountain was originally strictly practical. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to supply drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also generated clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times used by Romans to decorate their fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. Fountains enjoyed a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exercise his power over nature. To mark the entryway 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 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 enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for amazing water displays.
Modern fountains are used to embellish public spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.
A Small Garden Space? Don't Fret! You Can Still Have a Water Feature
A Small Garden Space? Don't Fret! You Can Still Have a Water Feature
The greenery in your garden is the perfect place to situate your water feature. Turn your water feature such as a pond, artificial river, or fountain to become the core component of your backyard. Water features make great add ons to both large gardens or small patios. The right accessories and the best location for it are worthwhile if you want to enhance the atmosphere.
Builders of the First Fountains
Builders of the First Fountains Multi-talented people, fountain artists from the 16th to the late 18th century often served as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one. Leonardo da Vinci as a imaginative master, inventor and scientific expert exemplified this Renaissance master. The forces of nature inspired him to explore the qualities and movement of water, and due to his curiosity, he carefully recorded his findings in his now renowned notebooks. Combining inventiveness with hydraulic and gardening talent, early Italian fountain developers changed private villa settings into ingenious water exhibits complete of emblematic meaning and natural charm. The splendors in Tivoli were created by the humanist Pirro Ligorio, who was renowned for his skill in archeology, engineering and garden design. Other water fountain designers, masterminding the fantastic water marbles, water features and water jokes for the various mansions in the vicinity of Florence, were tried and tested in humanistic themes and time-honored scientific readings.A Chronicle of Garden Fountains
A Chronicle of Garden Fountains The translation of hundreds of classic Greek texts into Latin was commissioned by the scholarly Pope Nicholas V who led the Church in Rome from 1397 until 1455. In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope decided to enhance the beauty of the city. In 1453 the Pope instigated the rebuilding of the Aqua Vergine, an historic Roman aqueduct which had carried fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away. The ancient Roman custom of marking the entry point of an aqueduct with an magnificent celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the area previously filled with a wall fountain built by Leon Battista Albert, an architect commissioned by the Pope.