Fountains and Water Features: From Ancient Springs to Modern Marvels

This fully illustrated book shows how fountains and water features have developed in Europe from antiquity to the present day and how the appreciation of water in the garden has changed. Water has played a central role since the very first gardens were created, and has been managed and directed in a surprising range of formal and naturalistic styles. Water features have been used in symbolic or mythological schemes, for private contemplation, for entertainment and for large-scale displays of power and wealth. Rosalind Hopwood traces the history of fountains, providing descriptions of the some of the key examples across Europe, such as Moorish water gardens in Spain, Renaissance pleasure fountains, impressive schemes at Chatsworth and Vaux le Vicomte and the wide range of modern examples. Today's water features commonly make use of hydraulics with computers and light effects, creating ever more novel and theatrical water features, particularly in public gardens. This is an important new history on this central gardening theme, illustrated throughout with colour photography and archive illustrations.

Rosalind Hopwood is an art historian with a special interest in fountains and water features. After 20 years of teaching she gained a PhD with a thesis on the Origins of the Renaissance Figure Fountain, which involved extensive travel in Europe and traced the history of water features and the development of hydraulic technology. She has lectured on art and garden history for adult education courses in Glasgow and London, and contributed to the Courtauld Institute art and architecture website. Her first book was published in 2004 and covered water features from Roman times to the present day within the British Isles.