The Origins Of Outdoor Fountains
The Origins Of Outdoor Fountains
The incredible architecture 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. From the beginning, outdoor fountains were soley there to serve as functional elements. Residents of cities, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains had to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their origin of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from the power of gravity. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the designer who created it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. The fountains found in the Gardens of Versailles were intended to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to exalt their positions by adding beautiful baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.
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 decorative. The creation of unique water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Nowadays, fountains adorn public spaces and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
The Early, Unappreciated Water-Moving System
The Early, Unappreciated Water-Moving System Sadly, Agrippa’s great design for raising water was not cited much following 1588, when Andrea Bacci applauded it widely. Only years afterward, in 1592, the earliest modern Roman conduit, the Acqua Felice, was linked to the Medici’s villa, probably making the technology outdated.
In truth it was probably merely abandoned when Ferdinando went back to Florence in 1588 following the expiry of his sibling, Francesco di Medici, leading Ferdinando to give up his cardinalship in order to safeguard his position as the upcoming Grand Duke of Tuscany. It could go against gravitation to raise water to Renaissance landscapes, providing them in a way other late 16th century concepts such as scenographic water presentations, musical fountains and giochi d’acqua or water caprices, were not.