Contemporary Garden Decor: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings
Contemporary Garden Decor: 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 propel water high into the air for an extraordinary effect.The primary purpose of a fountain was originally strictly practical. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to supply them with drinking water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the designer who created it. Roman fountains often depicted images of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. Muslims and Moorish garden designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller models of 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. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were glorified with baroque style fountains built to mark the place of entry of Roman aqueducts.
Since indoor plumbing became the standard 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 ornamental. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create unique water effects.
Modern-day fountains serve mostly as decoration for public spaces, to honor individuals or events, and compliment entertainment and recreational events.
Archaic Greek Art: Outdoor Statuary
Archaic Greek Art: Outdoor Statuary The primitive Greeks developed the first freestanding statuary, an impressive achievement as most sculptures up until then had been reliefs cut into walls and pillars. Most of the freestanding statues were of youthful, winsome male or female (kore) Greeks and are termed kouros figures. The kouroi were considered by the Greeks to represent beauty and were sculpted with one foot leading and an uncompromising firmness to their forward-facing poses; the male statues were always strapping, brawny, and undressing. In around 650 BC, the varieties of the kouroi became life-sized.
A huge era of transformation for the Greeks, the Archaic period helped bring about new forms of state, expressions of artwork, and a greater appreciation of people and customs outside of Greece. Notwithstanding, these conflicts did little to hamper the progression of the Greek civilization.
Bernini's Early Showpieces
Bernini's Early Showpieces Bernini's earliest water fountain, named Barcaccia, is a breath taking work of art seen at the bottom of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna. Roman locals and site seers who appreciate verbal exchanges as well as being the company of others still go to this spot. Bernini would without a doubt have been happy to know that people still flock to what has become one the city's most fashionable areas, that around his amazing water fountain. The master's first water fountain of his professional life was built at around 1630 at the behest of Pope Urbano VIII. A large vessel slowly sinking into the Mediterranean is the fountain's main theme. The great flooding of the Tevere that blanketed the whole region with water in the 16th was memorialized by this momentous fountain as recorded by documents dating back to this period. Absenting himself from Italy only once in his life for a lengthy time period, in 1665 Bernini voyaged to France.