Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources

 

Saignon fountain in Provence, Fra

Fountains of fluid beauty   

 

Gravity and water are a marriage made in heaven, a source of eternal captivation in waterfalls and fountains, providing both a visual and sound ambiance of delight. The calm inducing qualities and natural serenity created by a water feature made fountains an essential decor addition at many great palaces, gardens and villas. The ancient Greeks were the first to use aqueducts and gravity-powered fountains to distribute water. Prior to this, large carved stone basins were employed to collect and act as a distribution point for their precious water along with the digging of deep wells. As the Egyptians had to draw their water up from the Nile river, they didn’t build any gravity fed fountains. Until the late 19th century when mechanical pumps were introduced, most fountains 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.

 

Tritons and a dragon (emblem of Pope Gregory XIII. Boncompagni) Spruce fountain, Rome

HEN-Mainz Flickr

Pliny the Younger wrote about a banquet room in a Roman villa where a fountain began to jet water when visitors sat on a marble seat. Of course the display was more spectacular after the banquet had finished. Ancient Rome was a city of fountains and around 100 AD, it had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins. Roman engineers built aqueducts and fountains throughout the Roman Empire and there are still surviving examples of this. By the middle of the Renaissance, fountains had evolved to become a form of theater, with cascades and jets of water coming from marble statues on a grand scale. Unfortunately, after the aqueducts fell into ruin, some of the fountains ceased to function. It is always sad to see a dry fountain being a shadow of its former self. Still, many did survive by virtue of the accompanying statue decorations and the durable carved stone and marble that they were constructed from.
The graceful, shape shifting fluidity of water is wonderfully symbiotic with stone fountain statues and highlights the texture and lines of the form. It’s an added bonus that it has its own dynamic sculptural qualities. I’ve add an image below of the of the Fontaine des Innocents, the oldest fountain in Paris, created in 1547.

 

 

‘Fontaine des Mers’,– Place de la Concorde, Paris

 

 

Hestercombe Gardens Arch Fountain, Somerset , England; photo Doyle Herman

 

 

 

‘Fontaine des Innocents’ – 1547

Architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon

 

 

‘Fountain’,by Jim Rappaport

Paris France

 

‘The Fountain of Neptune’ (Italian Fontana di Nettuno)

Eponymous square, Piazza del Nettuno, Bologna

 

‘Juturna, Roman Water Goddess’ of Fountains, Wells and Springs

Design Toscana

 

 

Tybee Island fish sculpture fountain

 

 

Winged lion and cherubs fountain, France

Voyage Visuel

 

Angel fountain as S. Giuseppe dei Teatini Church , Palermo, Sicily.

 

 

San Paolo, Roma – LZ – Italia.

Photo William McClung

 

 

 

Figurative sculpture fountain. Regents Park, London.

 

 

Emile Bourdelle -‘Penelope’ (left)

1912

 

 

Mexican talavera ceramic jug and bowl fountain

 

 

Arles turquoise green fountainhead, France

 

 

The Tiki Pool, Duinrell

Wassenaar, The Netherlands

 

 

 

Kneeling female figure sculpture fountain, Santa Cruz

 

 

Polyxena at the fountain, watched out by Achilles (right). Attic white-ground lekythos,

ca. 480 BC Southern Italy

Louvre Museum

 

 

‘Fontana del Tritone’ – 17th-century fountain in Rome, by the Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

 

 

Aix en Provence

Photo by cb de damiette, Flickr

 

 

 

Indoor koi pond and waterfall

 

 

The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi  (“Fountain of the Four Rivers”) – Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Rome, Photo Pat Kofahl, 500px

 

 

Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, NY

 

 

Blue amphora vase – Stadtpark, Vienna

 

 

Bartholdi Park, Washington DC

 

 

Cobalt blue glaze birdbath

Molotilo

 

Courtyard fountain with cherub sculpture, Provence

 

 

A fountain by Utah artist Gary Prince

Harrison garden, Attica, Indiana

 

 

Gold Danaida fountain of Peterhof

Photo Yair Haklai

 

 

Terracotta English Tudor garden angel

 

 

‘Fontana del Pantheon’ fountain in front of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy

Inge Johnsson / Alamy

 

 

Fountain Blue Whale , 1982

Garden of St. Eloi island, Paris 12th district

 

 

Fontaine léanaise

Photo by Zagreusfm on Flickr

 

 

Fontaine Saint Michele

Photo by Michele Campus

 

 

Fountain Saint Michel

Tamar Marie on Flickr

 

 

Fountain Rhode Island—David Fuller

 

 

Art Deco fountain – Francois Sicard – 1932

photo Jamie Williams

The Archibald Fountain is located in Hyde Park North, Sydney

 

 

 

Friendship of Nations fountain, Moscow

 

 

Galatea Fountain (gilded-bronze), Audrey Flack

South Pasadena, Florida

 

 

Ganesha statue fountain – Bali

 

 

Art Nouveau maiden fountain

 

 

 

Havlystparken Hvitsten, Norway-©-Kari Meijers

 

 

 

Dragon fountain, Japan

 

 

Elephant fountain sculpture (waiting for some water)

Home Magazine by STUDIO Gannett – – Issu

 

 

A female rufous hummingbird hovers above water droplets from a backyard fountain.

Photo by Alandra Palisser

 

 

Tranquil Japanese garden, Portland, Oregon

 

 

Z

Moroccan geometric tiled pool

 

 

National Orchid Garden fountain, Singapore

 

 

‘Revolving Torsion’  by constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo, London

Photo by Pemberley Oak

 

 

Contemporary water fountain

 

 

” Moses”  by Michelangelo, 1515

church of San Pedro in Víncoli, in Rome

 

 

Concorde Square Fountain, Paris

 

 

 

Garden fountain

Photo by Kari Meijers

 

 

La Fontaine Bartholdi ~ sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi in 1889 and erected in the Place des Terreaux in Lyon centre square in 1892.

 

 

 

Jade green heron fountain sculpture

 

 

 

Neptune sculpture fountain – Library of Congress, USA

 

 

In The Garden – Stacy Bass

 

 

McNay Art Museum

 

 

 

Floozie in the Jacuzzi – Dhruva Mistry

Victoria Square, Birmingham

 

 

Fontaine de Medicis by Auguste Ottin

The Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.

 

 

Todji Kurtzman

 

 

 ‘Moon Garden’  – Tom Stuart Smith

London’s Connaught hotel — Image MMGI Marianne Majerus

 

 

Lotus lily pond

Indulgy

 

 

Uluru Waterfalls, Central Australia

 

 

Versailles fountain

 

 

Versailles — Bosquet de l’Arc de Triomphe

 

 

 

The Atlas Fountain, Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati, Italy

“Villas and Gardens” Flickr

 

 

Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s Moroccan oasis garden

 

 

Bronze fish sculpture wall fountain by Lucy Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

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