Ancient Fountain Designers

Ancient Fountain Designers Ancient Fountain Designers 40984611535224040155.jpg

Multi-talented individuals, fountain designers from the 16th to the late 18th century often worked as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one person. Leonardo da Vinci as a creative genius, inventor and scientific expert exemplified this Renaissance artist. The forces of nature inspired him to investigate the properties and movement of water, and due to his fascination, he systematically documented his observations in his now famed notebooks. Ingenious water displays packed of symbolic significance and natural grace transformed private villa settings when early Italian water feature creators paired resourcefulness with hydraulic and landscaping expertise. Known for his virtuosity in archeology, design and garden design, Pirro Ligorio, the humanist, provided the vision behind the splendors in Tivoli. For the assorted lands near Florence, other water feature developers were well versed in humanistic subjects and classical scientific texts, masterminding the excellent water marbles, water highlights and water antics.

Agrippa’s Intriguing Water-lifting Gadget

Agrippa’s Intriguing Water-lifting Gadget Unfortuitously, Agrippa’s wonderful design for lifting water wasn’t cited a great deal after 1588, when Andrea Bacci praised it widely. Just years later, in 1592, the early contemporary Roman waterway, the Acqua Felice, was linked to the Medici’s villa, probably making the device obsolete. The simpler account is that it was ignored about when Ferdinando left for Florence in 1588, after the passing of his brother Francesco di Medici, to exchange his status as cardinal for one as the Grand Duke of Tuscany. #P# Although there were other worthwhile water-driven designs either projected or built during the latter part of the sixteenth century, like scenographic water presentations, giochi d’acqua or water caprices, and musical water fountains, not one was fed by water like Agrippa’s technology.