Fountains in France
Today, though they no longer provide drinking water, they decorate the squares and parks of French cities and towns.
The first known fountains in France were built by Roman engineers in the first and second centuries A.D. in Glanum, Vaison-la-Romaine, Nîmes, and other towns of Provence.
Once the water arrived in the cities, it was channelled into lead pipes which distributed it to street fountains, or direct to Roman baths and villas.
Beginning in the 5th century A.D., with the invasion of barbarian tribes into France, the Roman fountain system began to break down.
[2] In illuminated manuscripts like the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1411–1416), the Garden of Eden was shown with a graceful gothic fountain in the centre (see illustration).
Simple fountains, called lavabos, were placed inside Medieval monasteries such as Le Thoronet Abbey in Provence and were used for ritual washing before religious services and meals.
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.
Inside the buffet, or the wall behind the fountain, was a hollow chamber called the bassin de repartition, connected by a pipe to the source of water below.
The fountain, which originally stood against the wall of the church of the Holy Innocents, was moved and rebuilt several times and now stands in a square near Les Halles.
[10] The Renaissance style spread widely in France, as noblemen and members of court transformed their castles into Renaissance-style residences and laid out gardens and fountains.
One example is found at the Château d'Opme, in the Auvergne near Clermont-Ferrand, where the treasurer of King Louis XIII, built a garden and a fountain, designed by Jean Androuet du Cerceau.
In the Gardens of Versailles, instead of falling naturally into a basin, water was shot into the sky, or formed into the shape of a fan or bouquet.
Two fountains were the centerpieces of the Gardens of Versailles, both taken from the myths about Apollo, the sun god, the emblem of Louis XIV, and both symbolizing his power.
The Fontaine Latone (1668–70) designed by André Le Nôtre and sculpted byGaspard and Balthazar Marsy, represents the story of how the peasants of Lycia tormented Latona and her children, Diana and Apollo, and were punished by being turned into frogs.
This statue shows a theme also depicted in the painted decoration in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles: Apollo in his chariot about to rise from the water, announced by Tritons with seashell trumpets.
Historians Mary Anne Conelli and Marilyn Symmes wrote, "Designed for dramatic effect and to flatter the king, the fountain is oriented so that the Sun God rises from the west and travels east toward the chateau, in contradiction to nature.
[13] (See Gardens of Versailles) The eighteenth century saw the construction of thirty new fountains in Paris, of which fourteen still survive, and the building of three châteaux d'eau, water reservoirs located inside large structures.
The fountain was an allegorical group of sculptures, representing the Durance bringing well-being the Vine and Wheat, symbols of abundance.
[17] The end of the 19th century saw a competition between the major cities of France to construct the most elaborate monumental fountains, composed of groups of allegorical figures.
The City of Toulon built a monumental fountain, the Fontaine de la Fédération, in 1890, to commemorate (a year late) the centennial of the French Revolution.
The fountain represents the person of France, in a boat, holding the torch of civilization in one hand, and the table of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in her other and.
[18] In 1890 the family of a wealthy Marseille merchant, Estrangin, donated another monumental fountain, the Fontaine Estrangin, a group of allegorical statues depicting Marseille seated upon a throne atop the prows of four ships, representing four continents, made by the Toulon sculptor André Allar.
The city of Bordeaux originally commissioned a monumental fountain for the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution from Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who had made the State of Liberty.
Fountains were no longer needed to supply drinking water, and two World Wars interrupted the creation of purely decorative architecture.
From 1911 to 1913 the city of Marseille built an exceptional monumental fountain, the Fontaine Contini, donated by the stone merchant Jules Cantini, made by the Toulon sculptor Andre Allar.
It was made entirely of white Carrara marble, and was in the form of a group of allegoritical statues, surrounding a column thirty meters high.
At the top of the column was an allegorical statue of Marseille, holding a ship in her hand, and passionate figures around the base representing the Rhone River, the Mediterranean, the Torrent and the Spring.
Between 1981 and 1995, during the terms of President François Mitterrand and Culture Minister Jack Lang, and of Mitterrand's bitter political rival, Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac (Mayor from 1977 until 1995), the city experienced a program of monumental fountain building that exceeded that of Napoleon Bonaparte or Louis Philippe.
[23] Contemporary French fountains use a wide variety of new materials (plastic, stainless steel, glass) and are often designed to make a statement.
It was designed by the French-Chinese sculptor Chen Zhen, shortly before his death in 2000, and finished by his widow and collaborator Xu Min in 2008.
