Fountain

A fountain (from the Latin "fons" or "fontis", a source or spring) is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect(Sony VGN-FZ50B battery).

Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns and villages. Until the late 19th century most fountains operated by gravity, and needed a source of water higher than the fountain, such as a reservoir or aqueduct, to make the water flow or jet into the air(Sony VGN-FZ51B battery).

In addition to providing drinking water, fountains were used for decoration and to celebrate their builders. Roman fountains were decorated with bronze or stone masks of animals or heroes. In the Middle Ages(Sony VGN-FZ52B battery), Moorish and Muslim garden designers used fountains to create miniature versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France used fountains in the Gardens of Versailles to illustrate his power over nature(Sony VGN-FZ440N battery). The baroque decorative fountains of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries marked the arrival point of restored Roman aqueducts and glorified the Popes who built them.

By the end of the 19th century, as indoor plumbing became the main source of drinking water, urban fountains became purely decorative(Sony VGN-FZ32 battery). Mechanical pumps replaced gravity and allowed fountains to recycle water and to force it high into the air. The Jet d'Eau in Lake Geneva, built in 1951, shoots water 140 meters in the air. The highest such fountain in the world is King Fahd's Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which spouts water 260 meters (853 feet) above the Red Sea(Sony VGN-FZ430E battery).

Fountains are used today to decorate city parks and squares; to honor individuals or events; for recreation and for entertainment. A Splash pador spray pool allows city residents to enter, get wet and cool off in summer(Sony VGN-FZ11E battery). The musical fountain combines moving jets of water, colored lights and recorded music, controlled by a computer, for dramatic effects. Drinking fountains provide clean drinking water in public buildings, parks and public spaces(Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery).

History of fountains

Ancient Fountains

Ancient civilizations built stone basins to capture and hold precious drinking water. A carved stone basin, dating to around 2000 BC, was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city ofLagash in modern Iraq(Sony VGP-BPS13A/B battery). The ancient Assyrians constructed a series of basins in the gorge of the Comel River, carved in solid rock, connected by small channels, descending to a stream. The lowest basin was decorated with carved reliefs of two lions(Sony VGP-BPS13/S battery). The ancient Egyptians had ingenious systems for hoisting water up from the Nile for drinking and irrigation, but without a higher source of water it was not possible to make water flow by gravity, and no Egyptian fountains or pictures of fountains have been found(Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery).

The ancient Greeks were apparently the first to use aqueducts and gravity-powered fountains to distribute water. According to ancient historians, fountains existed in Athens, Corinth(Sony PCGA-BP2EA battery), and other ancient Greek cities in the 6th century BC as the terminating points of aqueducts which brought water from springs and rivers into the cities. In the 6th century BC the Athenian rulerPeisistratos built the main fountain of Athens, the Enneacrounos, in the Agora, or main square(Sony VGP-BPS13AS battery). It had nine large cannons, or spouts, which supplied drinking water to local residents.

Greek fountains were made of stone or marble, with water flowing through bronze pipes and emerging from the mouth of a sculpted mask that represented the head of a lion or the muzzle of an animal(Sony VGP-BPS13S battery). Most Greek fountains flowed by simple gravity, but they also discovered how to use principle of a siphon to make water spout, as seen in pictures on Greek vases.

[edit]Ancient Roman fountains

The Ancient Romans built an extensive system of acqueducts from mountain rivers and lakes to provide water for the fountains and baths of Rome(Sony VGP-BPS13B/S battery). The Roman engineers used lead pipes instead of bronze to distribute the water throughout the city. The excavations at Pompeii, which revealed the city as it was when it was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD(Sony VGP-BPS13A/S battery), uncovered free-standing fountains and basins placed at intervals along city streets, fed by siphoning water upwards from lead pipes under the street. The excavations of Pompeii also showed that the homes of wealthy Romans often had a small fountain in the atrium(Sony VGN-FW31J battery), or interior courtyard, with water coming from city water supply and spouting into a small bowl or basin.

Ancient Rome was a city of fountains. According to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named curator aquarum or guardian of the water of Rome in 98 AD(Sony VGP-BPS21 battery), Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service(Sony VGP-BPS21B battery).

The Romans were able to make fountains jet water into the air, by using the pressure of water flowing from a distant and higher source of water to create hydraulic head, or force. Illustrations of fountains in gardens spouting water are found on wall paintings in Rome from the 1st century BC(Sony VGP-BPS21/S battery), and in the villas of Pompeii. The Villa of Hadrian in Tivoli featured a large swimming basin with jets of water. Pliny the Younger described the banquet room of a Roman villa where a fountain began to jet water when visitors sat on a marble seat(Sony VGP-BPS21A/B battery). The water flowed into a basin, where the courses of a banquet were served in floating dishes shaped like boats.

Roman engineers built aqueducts and fountains throughout the Roman Empire. Examples can be found today in the ruins of Roman towns in Vaison-la-Romaine and Glanum and in France(Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L battery), in Augst, Switzerland, and other sites.

Medieval fountains

During the Middle Ages, Roman aqueducts were wrecked or fell into decay, and many fountains throughout Europe stopped working, so fountains existed mainly in art and literature, or in secluded monasteries or palace gardens(Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L battery). Fountains in the Middle Ages were associated with the source of life, purity, wisdom, innocence, and the Garden of Eden. In illuminated manuscripts like the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry(1411–1416) (Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L battery), the Garden of Eden was shown with a graceful gothic fountain in the center (see illustration).

The cloister of a monastery was supposed to be a replica of the Garden of Eden, protected from the outside world. Simple fountains, called lavabos(Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L battery), were placed inside Medieval monasteries such as Le Thoronet Abbey in Provence and were used for ritual washing before religious services(Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L battery).

Fountains were also found in the enclosed medieval jardins d'amour, "gardens of courtly love" - ornamental gardens used for courtship and relaxion. The medieval romance The Roman de la Rose describes a fountain in the center of an enclosed garden, feeding small streams bordered by flowers and fresh herbs(Sony VAIO PCG-5L1L battery).

Some Medieval fountains, like the cathedrals of their time, illustrated biblical stories, local history and the virtues of their time. The Fontana Maggiore in Perugia, dedicated in 1278, is decorated with stone carvings representing prophets and saints(Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L battery), allegories of the arts, labors of the months, the signs of the zodiac, and scenes from Genesis and Roman history.

Medieval fountains, in the grim times of the Middle Ages, could also provide amusement. The gardens of the Counts of Artois at the Chateau de Herdin, built in 1295(Sony VAIO PCG-6S3L battery), contained famous fountains, called Les Merveilles de Herdin which could be triggered to drench surprised visitors.

Fountains of the Islamic World

The Ancient Persians built extensive water distribution systems consisting of underground channels (Qanat) (Sony VAIO PCG-6V1L battery), connected to smaller underground canals (kariz), which provided water for drinking, bathing and irrigation, and for the ornamental Persian gardens. It is not known if the Persians had gravity-powered fountains, or if they simply used wells and mechanical ways to lift water(Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L battery).

After the Arab invasions of the 7th century, the traditional design of the Persian garden was used in the Islamic garden. Persian and Islamic gardens after the 7th century were traditionally enclosed by walls and were designed to represent paradise(Sony VAIO PCG-7111L battery); the Persian word for enclosed space is 'pairi-daeza.' The chahar bagh, or paradise garden, was laid out in the form of a cross, with four channels representing the rivers of paradise, dividing the four parts of world(Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L battery). Water sometimes spouted from a fountain in the center of the cross, representing the spring or fountain, Salsabil, described in the Qu'ran as the source of the rivers of Paradise(Sony VAIO PCG-7113L battery).

In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers, a trio of Persian inventors, were commissioned by the Caliph of Baghdad to summarize the engineering knowledge of the ancient Greek and Roman world(Sony VAIO PCG-7133L battery). They wrote a book entitled the Book of Ingenious Devices, describing the works of the 1st century Greek Engineer Hero of Alexandria and other engineers, plus many of their own inventions. They described fountains which formed water into different shapes and a wind-powered water pump(Sony VAIO PCG-7Z1L battery), but It is not known if any of their fountains were ever actually built.

The palaces of Moorish Spain, particularly the Alhambra in Granada, had famous fountains. The patio of the Sultan in the gardens of Generalife in Granada (1319) featured spouts of water pouring into a basin(Sony VAIO PCG-7Z2L battery), with channels which irrigated orange and myrtle trees. The garden was modified over the centuries - the jets of water which cross the canal today were added in the 19th century. The fountain in the Court of the Lionsof the Alhambra, built from 1362–1391, is a large vasque mounted on twelve stone statues of lions(Sony VAIO PCG-8Y1L battery). Water spouts upward in the vasque and pours from the mouths of the lions, filling four channels dividing the courtyard into quadrants. The basin dates to the 14th century, but the lions spouting water are believed to be older, dating to the 11th century(Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L battery).

The design of the Islamic garden spread throughout the Islamic world, from Moorish Spain to the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The Shalimar Gardens (Lahore) built by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1641, were said to be ornamented with 410 fountains, which fed into a large basin, canal and marble pools(Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L battery).

In the Ottoman Empire, rulers often built fountains next to mosques so worshippers could do their ritual washing. Examples include the Fountain of Qasim Pasha (1527), Temple Mount, Jerusalem(Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1L battery), an ablution and drinking fountain built during the Ottoman reign of Suleiman the Magnificent; and the Fountain of Ahmed III (1728), at the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. Palaces themselves often had small decorated fountains, which provided drinking water(Sony VAIO PCG-7112L battery), cooled the air, and made a pleasant splashing sound. One surviving example is the Fountain of Tears (1764) at the Bakhchisarai Palace, in Crimea; which was made famous by a poem ofAlexander Pushkin(Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L battery).

Renaissance fountains (15th–17th centuries)

In the 14th century, Italian humanist scholars began to rediscover and translate forgotten Roman texts on architecture by Vitruvius, on hydraulics by Hero of Alexandria, and descriptions of Roman gardens and fountains by Pliny the Younger Pliny the Elder(Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L battery), and Varro. The treatise on architecture, De re aedificatoria, by Leon Battista Alberti, which described in detail Roman villas, gardens and fountains, became the guidebook for Renaissance builders(HP PAVILION DV2 Battery).

In Rome Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455), himself a scholar who commissioned hundreds of translations of ancient Greek classics into Latin, decided to embellish the city and make it a worthy capital of the Christian world(HP PAVILION DV2000 Battery). In 1453 he began to rebuild the Acqua Vergine, the ruined Roman aqueduct which had brought clean drinking water to the city from eight miles (13 km) away. He also decided to revive the Roman custom of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with a mostra( HP PAVILION DV3 Battery), a grand commemorative fountain. He commissioned the architect Leon Battista Alberti to built a wall fountain where the Trevi Fountain is now located. The aqueduct he restored, with modifications and extensions(HP PAVILION DV3000 Battery), eventually supplied water to the Trevi Fountain and the famous baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona.

One of the first new fountains to be built in Rome during the Renaissance was the fountain in the piazza in front of the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, (1472), which was placed on the site of an earlier Roman fountain(Dell INSPIRON 1420 Battery). Its design, based on an earlier Roman model, with a circular vasque on a pedestal pouring water into a basin below, became the model for many other fountains in Rome, and eventually for fountains in other cities, from Paris to London(Dell Inspiron E1505 Battery).

In 1503, Pope Julius II decided to recreate a classical pleasure garden in the same place. The new garden, called the Cortile del Belvedere, was designed by Donato Bramante. The garden was decorated with the Pope's famous collection of classical statues(Dell Latitude D620 Battery), and with fountains. The Venetian Ambassador wrote in 1523, "...On one side of the garden is a most beautiful loggia, at one end of which is a lovely fountain that irrigates the orange trees and the rest of the garden by a little canal in the center of the loggia... (Dell RM791 battery) The original garden was split in two by the construction of the Vatican Library in the 16th century, but a new fountain by Carlo Maderno was built in the Cortile del Belvedere, with a jet of water shooting up from a circular stone bowl on an octagonal pedestal in a large basin(Dell N3010 battery).

In 1537, in Florence, Cosimo I de' Medici, who had become ruler of the city at the age of only 17, also decided to launch a program of aqueduct and fountain building. The city had previously gotten all its drinking water from wells and reservoirs of rain water(Dell INSPIRON 1525 Battery), which meant that there was little water or water pressure to run fountains. Cosimo built an aqueduct large enough for the first continually-running fountain in Florence, theFountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria (1560–1567). This fountain featured an enormous white marble statue of Neptune, resembling Cosimo, by sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati(Dell Inspiron 6000 battery).

Under the Medicis, fountains were not just sources of water, but advertisements of the power and benevolence of the city's rulers. They became central elements not only of city squares, but of the new Italian Renaissance garden(Dell Inspiron 6400 battery). The great Medici Villa at Castello, built for Cosimo by Benedetto Varchi, featured two monumental fountains on its central axis; one showing with two bronze figures representing Herculesslaying Antaeus(Dell Inspiron 1501 battery), symbolizing the victory of Cosimo over his enemies; and a second fountain, in the middle of a circular labyrinth of cypresses, laurel, myrtle and roses, had a statue bronze statue by Giambolognashowed the goddess Venus wringing her hair(Dell Vostro 1710 battery). The planet Venus was governed by Capricorn, which was the emblem of Cosimo; the fountain symbolized that he was the absolute master of Florence.

By the middle Renaissance, fountains had become a form of theater, with cascades and jets of water coming from marble statues of animals and mythological figures(Dell Studio 1735 battery). The most famous fountains of this kind were found in the Villa d'Este (1550–1572), at Tivoli near Rome, which featured a hillside of basins, fountains and jets of water, as well as a fountain which produced music by pouring water into a chamber, forcing air into a series of flute-like pipes(Dell Studio 1737 battery). The gardens also featured giochi d'acqua, water jokes, hidden fountains which suddenly soaked visitors. Between 1546-1549, the merchants of Paris built the first Renaissance-style fountain in Paris, the Fontaine des Innocents(Dell Latitude E6400 battery), to commemorate the ceremonial entry of the King into the city. The fountain, which originally stood against the wall of the church of the Holy Innocents, as rebuilt several times and now stands in a square near Les Halles. It is the oldest fountain in Paris(Dell Latitude E6500 battery).

Henry constructed an Italian-style garden with a fountain shooting a vertical jet of water for his favorite mistress, Diana de Poitiers, next to the Château de Chenonceau (1556–1559). At the royal Château de Fontainebleau, he built another fountain with a bronze statue of Diane, goddess of the hunt, modeled after Diane de Poitiers(Dell Inspiron 1320 battery).

Later, after the death of Henry II, his widow, Catherine de Medici, expelled Diana de Poitiers from Chenonceau and built her own fountain and garden there.

King Henry IV of France made an important contribution to French fountains by inviting an Italian hydraulic engineer(Dell Studio 1450 battery), Tomasso Francini, who had worked on the fountains of the villa at Pratalino, to make fountains in France. Francini became a French citizen in 1600, built the Medici Fountain, and during the rule of the young King Louis XIII(Dell Inspiron 1320N battery), he was raised to the position of Intendant general des Eaux et Fontaines of the KIng, a position which was hereditary. His descendants became the royal fountain designers for Louis XIII and for Louis XIV at Versailles(Dell Inspiron 1464 battery).

In 1630 another Medici, Marie de Medici, the widow of Henry IV, built her own monumental fountain in Paris, the Medici Fountain, in the garden of the Palais du Luxembourg. That fountain still exists today, with a long basin of water and statues added in 1866(Dell Inspiron 1564 battery).Fountain