Ancient Water Fountain Artists

Ancient Water Fountain Artists Often serving as architects, sculptors, designers, engineers and cultivated scholars, all in one, fountain designers were multi-faceted individuals from the 16th to the later part of the 18th century. Throughout the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the artist as a inspired genius, inventor and scientific specialist. With his tremendous curiosity about the forces of nature, he examined the properties and motion of water and also carefully recorded his findings in his now much celebrated notebooks. Transforming private villa settings into imaginative water exhibits full with symbolic meaning and natural wonder, early Italian fountain designers coupled creativity with hydraulic and horticultural ability. The humanist Pirro Ligorio provided the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli and was recognized for his virtuosity in archeology, architecture and garden concepts. Masterminding the excellent water marbles, water features and water jokes for the various properties near Florence, some other water feature engineers were well versed in humanistic themes and classical technical texts.

Statues As a Staple of Vintage Art in Ancient Greece

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Statues As a Staple of Vintage Art in Ancient Greece The initial freestanding statuary was developed by the Archaic Greeks, a distinguished accomplishment since until then the sole carvings in existence were reliefs cut into walls and pillars. Youthful, appealing male or female (kore) Greeks were the subject matter of most of the statues, or kouros figures. The kouroi were considered by the Greeks to typify beauty and were sculpted with one foot leading and an uncompromising stiffness to their forward-facing poses; the male statues were always strapping, sinewy, and unclothed. The kouroi became life-sized beginning in 650 BC. The Archaic period was tumultuous for the Greeks as they progressed into more refined forms of federal government and art, and gained more information about the peoples and societies outside of Greece. But in spite of the issues, the Greek civilization continued to advance, unabated.

Back Story of Fountains

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Back Story of Fountains The translation of hundreds of ancient Greek texts into Latin was commissioned by the scholarly Pope Nicholas V who ruled the Church in Rome from 1397 until 1455. It was important for him to beautify the city of Rome to make it worthy of being called the capital of the Christian world. Starting in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent restoration at the bidding of the Pope. The ancient Roman custom of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The architect Leon Battista Alberti was directed by the Pope to put up a wall fountain where we now find the Trevi Fountain. The aqueduct he had refurbished included modifications and extensions which eventually allowed it to supply water to the Trevi Fountain as well as the famed baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona.