Latest news with #Bernini
Express Tribune
a day ago
- General
- Express Tribune
A fountain of legacies
There's something about the shimmer, tinkle and graceful arc of water in motion. From ancient Minoan courts and Persian gardens to Roman aqueducts and modern plazas, fountains have been more than just ornamental - they've been sacred, social, symbolic and of late, cooling-off spots in sweltering cities. As per DW, with a history spanning almost five millennia, fountains first served practical needs. Around 2,000 BCE on Minoan Crete, water from springs was channeled through terracotta pipes into stepped basins at palaces like Knossos and Zakros. These weren't just for washing - they were integrated into religious sites for purifying rituals. In ancient Egypt, fountains often featured lion's head spouts, a motif passed down through Greco-Roman and Islamic traditions. For instance, the Court of the Lions in the 14th?century Moorish Alhambra palace in Granada Spain features a fountain consisting of 12 lion figures spouting water. Associated with strength and divine guardianship, lions symbolized protective power. Thus, a lion in mid-roar made an ideal candidate for visually striking spouts, especially at palaces or grand entryways. In traditional Islamic gardens, fountains and water features played a central role, reflecting the Quranic vision of paradise and symbolised purity, life and divine beauty. Influenced by the Moors of the Nasrid dynasty (residents of the aforementioned Alhambra) and the Persians of the Sasanian Empire, these gardens were designed to evoke spiritual bliss and harmony by integrating, among others, fountains into their layout. Symbolism and service In Europe, the Renaissance and Baroque periods transformed fountains into vehicles of spectacle and political symbolism. Leading the pack are Rome's famed fountains: Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona represents the four major rivers known during the Renaissance: the Nile (Africa), the Danube (Europe), the Ganges (Asia) and the Rio de la Plata (Americas). Commissioned by Pope Innocent X and built in 1651, it symbolised the global reach of the Catholic Church and the pope's power. Completed in 1762, the Trevi Fountain has since achieved pop icon status and is now an influencer magnet, partly due to the legend that a coin tossed into it would ensure a return to the Eternal City, likely influenced by the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain. In Ottoman Istanbul, public "cesme" or fountains were donated by wealthy families as acts of charity. Often bearing poetic inscriptions, these fountains offered water freely in a hot climate and were meeting spots for the city's residents. Modern spectacles Fast forward to the 20th and 21st centuries, and some fountains have even become iconic "performers." California-based WET Design has created two such examples. The Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, opened in 1998, feature more than 1,000 fountains swaying to music and enhanced by light. The display spans more than 300 meters (around 1,000 feet) with water soaring as high as 138 meters. This audiovisual spectacle reportedly utilises water from an on-site well, and not city water systems. With 6,600 underwater lights that some claim can be seen from the International Space Station, the Dubai Fountain located on the Burj Khalifa Lake is reportedly the world's largest performing fountain. Close to 275 meters wide and shooting water 150 meters high, its waters are choreographed to sway to Arabic classics or K-pop hits. Critics have argued that fountains waste water, especially in drought-prone regions. During drought conditions, some cities turn off their decorative fountains to preserve water resources, as was the case in Milan in 2022. Facing this problem, modern designs often use recirculated water and solar-powered pumps. Research has shown that fountains can have localized cooling effects - especially when they incorporate fine sprays or mist, which increase evaporative contact with air. According to the European Climate-Adapt initiative, released in 2024, "water spray from a fountain has an even greater cooling effect due to the large contact surface between water and air, which stimulates evaporation." Similarly, Urban Green-Blue Grids states that "fountains and misting installations cool the air and skin by means of evaporation." Timeless purpose Thus as Europe - the fastest-warming continent, according to the World Meteorological Organisation - wilts under punishing heat waves, cities have been adapting their existing water features to meet modern needs. In Paris, the 19th-century Wallace fountains, scattered across the city and originally created to dispense free drinking water, were retrofitted in 2021 with misting nozzles that spring into action during strong heat. Vienna has misting arches, interactive fountains and playful water zones for kids and adults looking to cool off. Berlin is expanding its network of touchless drinking fountains, combining hygiene and hydration. In 2022, archaeologists restored a Roman imperial period fountain in Turkey's ancient city of Kibyra using over 150 original marble fragments. Turkiye Today reported in April 2025 that the fountain built in 23 CE "has begun flowing again" making Kibyra the second Turkish ancient city "to feature a restored and functioning Roman fountain." It has to be underscored, though, that fountains alone could not temper city temperatures; that would require a complete overhaul of how cities are planned. Yet the fact that urbanites are often drawn to fountains in their living spaces - whether to immerse themselves in the cool water or quench their thirst at those offering potable water - show that fountains aren't just relics of gilded eras. Their soothing relevance may see a renaissance as we face a hotter future.
DW
4 days ago
- General
- DW
From myth to mist: Fountains over the ages – DW – 07/25/2025
From historical symbols to heat relief, these charming waterworks are enjoying a renaissance of sorts as cooling-off spots in increasingly hotter cities. There's something about the shimmer, tinkle, and graceful arc of water in motion. From ancient Minoan courts and Persian gardens to Roman aqueducts and modern plazas, fountains have been more than just ornamental — they've been sacred, social, symbolic, and of late, cooling-off spots in sweltering cities. With a history spanning almost five millennia, fountains first served practical needs. Around 2,000 BCE on Minoan Crete, water from springs was channeled through terracotta pipes into stepped basins at palaces like Knossos and Zakros. These weren't just for washing — they were integrated into religious sites for purifying rituals. In ancient Egypt, fountains often featured lion's head spouts, a motif passed down through Greco-Roman and Islamic traditions. For instance, the Court of the Lions in the 14th‑century Moorish Alhambra palace in Granada Spain features a fountain consisting of 12 lion figures spouting water. Associated with strength and divine guardianship, lions symbolized protective power. Thus, a lion in mid-roar made an ideal candidate for visually striking spouts, especially at palaces or grand entryways. In traditional Islamic gardens, fountains and water features played a central role, reflecting the Quranic vision of Paradise and symbolized purity, life and divine beauty. Influenced by the Moors of the Nasrid dynasty (residents of the aforementioned Alhambra) and the Persians of the Sasanian empire, these gardens were designed to evoke spiritual bliss and harmony by integrating, among others, fountains into their layout. In Europe, the Renaissance and Baroque periods transformed fountains into vehicles of spectacle and political symbolism. Leading the pack are Rome's famed fountains: Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona represents the four major rivers known during the Renaissance: the Nile (Africa), the Danube (Europe), the Ganges (Asia) and the Río de la Plata (Americas). Commissioned by Pope Innocent X and built in 1651, it symbolized the global reach of the Catholic Church and the Pope's power. Completed in 1762, the Trevi Fountain has since achieved pop icon status and is now an influencer magnet, partly due to the legend that a coin tossed into it would ensure a return to the Eternal City, likely influenced by the 1954 movie "Three Coins in the Fountain." In Ottoman Istanbul, public "cesme" or fountains were donated by wealthy families as acts of charity. Often bearing poetic inscriptions, these fountains offered water freely in a hot climate and were meeting spots for the city's residents. Fast forward to the 20th and 21st centuries, and some fountains have even become iconic "performers." California-based WET Design created two such examples. The Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, opened in 1998, feature more than 1,000 fountains swaying to music and enhanced by light. The display spans more than 300 meters (around 1,000 feet) with water soaring as high as 138 meters. This audiovisual spectacle reportedly utilizes water from an onsite well and not city water systems. With 6,600 underwater lights that some claim can be seen from the International Space Station, the Dubai Fountain located on the Burj Khalifa Lake is reportedly the world's largest performing fountain. Close to 275 meters wide and shooting water 150 meters high, its waters are choreographed to sway to Arabic classics or K-pop hits. Critics have argued that fountains waste water, especially in drought-prone regions. During drought conditions, some cities turn off their decorative fountains to preserve water resources, as was the case in Milan in 2022. Facing this problem, modern designs often use recirculated water and solar-powered pumps. Research has shown that fountains can have localized cooling effects — especially when they incorporate fine sprays or mist, which increase evaporative contact with air. According to the European Climate-Adapt initiative (2024), "water spray from a fountain has an even greater cooling effect due to the large contact surface between water and air, which stimulates evaporation." Similarly, Urban Green-Blue Grids states that "fountains and misting installations cool the air and skin by means of evaporation." Thus as Europe — the fastest-warming continent, according to the World Meteorological Organization — wilts under punishing heatwaves, cities have been adapting their existing water features to meet modern needs. In Paris, the 19th-century Wallace fountains, scattered across the city and originally created for free drinking water, were retrofitted in 2021 with misting nozzles that spring into action during strong heat. Vienna has misting arches, interactive fountains and playful water zones for kids and adults looking to cool off. Berlin is expanding its network of touchless drinking fountains, combining hygiene and hydration. In 2022, archaeologists restored a Roman imperial period fountain in Turkey's ancient city of Kibyra using over 150 original marble fragments. reported in April 2025, that the fountain built in 23 CE, "has begun flowing again" making Kibyra the second Turkish ancient city "to feature a restored and functioning Roman fountain." It has to be underscored though that fountains alone could not temper city temperatures; that would require a complete overhaul of how cities are planned. Yet the fact that urbanites are often drawn to fountains in their living spaces — whether to immerse themselves in the cool water or quench their thirst at those offering potable water — show that fountains aren't just relics of gilded eras. Their soothing relevance may see a renaissance as we are set to face a hotter future.
The Herald Scotland
10-07-2025
- The Herald Scotland
How to enjoy two Italian cities in four days straight from Scotland
From Scotland to the sun-drenched piazzas of Italy, Orbis Travels invites you to experience on an unforgettable journey to two of the country's most historical and picturesque cities. With an outstanding 4.8 Trustpilot rating, Orbis Travels has perfected the art of creating seamless, magical experiences that exceed expectations. Your Italian odyssey begins in the Eternal City, where every cobblestone tells a story spanning millennia. Rome isn't just a destination – it's a living museum where gladiators once battled, emperors ruled, and renaissance masters left their indelible mark on history. Step into the Colosseum and feel the echoes of ancient roars reverberating through time. Marvel at the Pantheon's perfect dome, a testament to Roman engineering that continues to inspire architects today. Toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and make a wish beneath Bernini's baroque masterpiece, where the promise of return to Rome feels as certain as the fountain's eternal flow. Wander through the Vatican Museums, where Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling creates a divine canopy above your head. The artistry is so overwhelming that visitors often find themselves lying on the floor, craning their necks to absorb every brushstroke of this renaissance triumph. Rome's culinary scene is equally captivating. Savour authentic carbonara in a hidden trattoria near the Spanish Steps, where recipes have been passed down through generations. The city's aperitivo culture transforms every evening into a celebration, with locals gathering in charming piazzas to toast another perfect Roman sunset. Your journey continues on a scenic train journey to Venice. Built on more than 100 small islands, Venice is a masterpiece of human ingenuity where Byzantine palaces rise directly from emerald canals, and gondoliers navigate waterways that serve as the city's ancient highways. St. Mark's Square, Napoleon's 'drawing room of Europe,' showcases Venice's former glory as a maritime empire. The basilica's golden mosaics shimmer like captured sunlight, while the campanile offers breathtaking views across the lagoon to distant islands where glassblowers and lace makers continue centuries-old traditions. (Image: Getty Images) Drift through narrow canals aboard a traditional gondola, where skilled oarsmen guide you past hidden gardens and beneath ancient bridges. The Rialto Bridge, with its bustling market and panoramic views, connects Venice's commercial heart with its artistic soul. Here, vendors sell everything from fresh seafood to handcrafted masks, maintaining traditions that date back to the Renaissance. Venice's romantic allure is undeniable. Whether you're sharing a sunset spritz along the Grand Canal or getting lost in the maze-like streets of Dorsoduro, the city creates moments that feel stolen from a fairy. With their impressive 4.8 Trustpilot rating, Orbis Travels has earned its reputation through meticulous attention to detail and genuine care for every traveler's experience. Their Scotland to Italy package eliminates the stress of planning while maximizing your time in these incredible destinations. Expert local guides share insider knowledge that transforms sightseeing into storytelling. Carefully selected accommodations ensure comfort after days of exploration, while seamless transfers mean you can focus on creating memories rather than managing logistics. This four day Roman and Venetian adventure proves that the best journeys aren't just about the destinations, they're about the stories you'll tell for years to come. Let Orbis Travels craft your perfect Italian escape, where every detail is designed to exceed your expectations. Call now on 0208 051 0956 TRAVEL NOTES Price from £349pp Return flights into Rome and out of Venice 2 Nights in Rome at the Palladium Palace Hotel Train Rome to Venice 2 Nights in Venice at the Abbazia Hotel ACCOMODATION THE PALLADIUM PALACE, ROME The Palladium Palace is a classic and elegant 4-star hotel located in the heart of Rome, just 200 metres from Termini Train and Metro Station. Built in the late 19th century, this hotel boasts a stunning rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city, along with elegant interiors adorned with marble and classic hardwood furnishings. (Image: Orbis Travel) The classical-style guest rooms are equipped with free Wi-Fi, satellite TV, and air conditioning, and some feature frescoes dating back to the early 1900s. Guests can enjoy access to the lobby, bar, and breakfast hall, which serves an American-style buffet, as well as a gym that offers sauna and massage services. Situated just 50 metres from the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the hotel is within walking distance of famous attractions like the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and the Imperial Forum. The Palladium Palace is renowned for its friendly and efficient service, provided by a team of highly experienced professionals. HOTEL ABBAZIA, VENICE In the heart of Venice, within the historic walls of an old abbey, Hotel Abbazia captures the authentic poetic atmosphere of the Monastery of Venice's Discalced Carmelite Friars. (Image: Orbis Travel) This charming hotel has long been a symbol of wonderful hospitality and tradition. The hotel is surrounded by a rare garden, where the serene space and comfort have been beautifully enhanced through careful restoration.
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Art Review: Wangechi Mutu's Roman Debut Of Black Soil Poems At Galleria Borghese
Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Older Sisters © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese Wangechi Mutu–the Kenyan-American artist internationally celebrated for her visceral, genre-defying works–exhibits in Italy for the first time with Black Soil Poems . Mutu's debut Roman exhibition is currently on view at the historic Galleria Borghese. Curated by Cloé Perrone, the exhibition unfolds like a myth unearthed in fragments—emerging from the villa's Baroque opulence, threading through its ornate interiors, ascending to its façade, and finally settling into the Secret Gardens like memory returning to land. With this site-specific intervention, Mutu reshapes not only the physical spaces of the museum but also the historical and symbolic narratives long rooted within them. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Throned ļ © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese The Historic Setting: Galleria Borghese's Legacy The Galleria Borghese–located in the heart of Rome's Villa Borghese gardens–is one of the city's most prestigious art museums. Originally built in the early 17th century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V and a passionate art collector, the villa was designed as both a suburban retreat and a grand setting to showcase his vast collection, which included classical antiquities, Renaissance masterpieces, and Baroque works, from sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian. Much like the museum's recent homage to Baroque poet Giovan Battista Marino, Black Soil Poems continues Galleria Borghese's engagement with the poetic and the mythological. But where Marino played with the exuberance of language, Mutu mines the deeper, often darker strata of meaning. The exhibition's title points to her core themes: 'black soil' evokes fertility, richness, history, trauma, and regeneration. It is material as metaphor—a place where stories germinate, bodies are buried and reborn, and poetry takes shape through clay-like memory. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Water Woman ļ © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese A Landmark Debut: Wangechi Mutu in Rome Inside the Galleria Borghese, Mutu's interventions are elegant yet subversive. She neither displaces nor overwhelms the Borghese's famed collection of classical art. Instead, her works float, dangle and shimmer playfully—acting as whispers rather than proclamations. Sculptures such as Ndege , Suspended Playtime , and First Weeping Head are suspended delicately from the villa's ceilings, lightly interrupting the visual flow of the museum without obscuring it. These hanging pieces resist the pull of gravity and tradition alike. Their placement introduces a spatial reorientation: rather than gazing at static monuments of Western art history, visitors are urged to look up, around, within — to question what they see and what they don't. This act of suspension, both literal and conceptual, is one of the exhibition's most resonant talking points. Mutu's powerful art destabilizes permanence and power. Bronze, often used to convey heroism and stability, is in Mutu's hands reimagined as porous and ancestral—a medium that can hold memory rather than impose legacy. By incorporating organic materials like wood, feathers, soil, and wax, Mutu draws attention to fragility, fluidity, and metamorphosis. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Underground Hornship | © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese Poetry in the Soil: Thematic Roots of the Exhibition Mutu's enigmatic works do not mimic or mock classical aesthetics but create a contemporary counterpoint. They occupy liminal spaces—providing a bridge between tradition and reinvention, presence and absence. The museum becomes a palimpsest, with Mutu's sculptures as annotations in a language of ghosts and futures. She encourages viewers not just to look at what is visible, but to listen for what has been erased, silenced, or rendered invisible by centuries of patriarchal, colonial narratives. The exhibition's thematic richness carries seamlessly into the villa's façade and throughout the gardens. Mutu plants her bronze figures in the gardens like sentinels from another world. The Seated I and The Seated IV –first presented by Mutu in New York City in 2019 for The Met's Façade Commission–reappear at Galleria Borghese with renewed force. Part woman, part monument, part oracle, Mutu's statues reclaim the historically male-coded trope of the caryatid. They bear the weight not of buildings, but of histories and the potential for radical futures. Gardens as Portals: The Outdoor Installations Elsewhere in the gardens, seminal pieces including Nyoka , Heads in a Basket , Musa , and Water Woman continue Mutu's excavation of archetypal vessels—forms that hold water, spirit, memory. They are elemental and enigmatic, invoking East African traditions and wider global cosmologies. Video work such as The End of Eating Everything extends Mutu's sculptural vocabulary into time-based media, where animated, mythological beings twist and morph in an allegorical feast of consumption and transformation. The villa's garden becomes a liminal threshold–a kind of portal between Eden and exile. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with The Seated I and IV И. Galleria Borghese Galleria Borghese The Sound of Memory: A Multisensory Encounter Sound serves as an invisible thread throughout the show. From the ambient rhythm of Poems by my great Grandmother, to textual allusions drawn from Bob Marley's War —itself a reinterpretation of Haile Selassie's historic speech against racial injustice—Mutu weaves a multi-sensory tapestry of resistance and remembrance. Language becomes sculptural. Sound becomes a form of historical reckoning. The invisible becomes palpable. Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Galleria Borghese, aptly describes Mutu's work as encouraging a deeper, more intense way of looking — one that expands the museum experience beyond aesthetics into inquiry. 'They invite us to search for spirits, ghosts, transformation, and poetry,' she writes, 'to not stop at the visible or even at our horizon and its usual beauty.' Indeed, the exhibition reorients the museum from a shrine of preserved beauty into a site of poetic possibility and cultural dialogue. Black Soil Poems also continues beyond the Borghese walls. At the American Academy in Rome, Mutu's sculpture Shavasana I lies in repose among ancient Roman funerary inscriptions. This bronze figure, covered by a woven mat, named after the yoga pose associated with rest and release, quietly embodies death, dignity, and surrender. The installation deepens the exhibition's themes of mortality, transformation, and presence within absence. A Living Archive: Representation and the Black Female Body Mutu's broader practice spans sculpture, painting, film, collage, and installation, consistently returning to the politics of representation. Her hybrid female figures and dystopian dreamscapes ask: Who is seen? Who is imagined? Who is erased? Through this visual lexicon, she interrogates systems that idealize, exoticize, or dehumanize the female body, particularly the Black female body. In her ongoing dialogue with figuration, Mutu doesn't just reclaim space, she redefines it. The Language of Transformation: A Closing Reflection Black Soil Poems is not only a personal milestone for Mutu–her first solo exhibition in Italy—but also a significant moment for the Galleria Borghese. It follows the museum's recent commitment to contemporary art, including notable exhibitions by Giuseppe Penone and Louise Bourgeois. This curatorial trajectory acknowledges that history is not a fixed inheritance but an evolving dialogue, and that the past gains meaning when refracted through the lens of the present. Thanks to the support of FENDI, and a robust public program titled Esistere come donna (To Exist as a Woman), organized by Electa and Fondazione Fondamenta, the exhibition is part of a broader cultural conversation that considers gender, identity, and artistic lineage. With prestigious institutional partners, the program opens pathways for lectures and dialogues that expand upon the exhibition's themes. In Black Soil Poems , Wangechi Mutu offers a deeply layered, sensorially rich encounter that reclaims myth, memory, and space. Her work whispers, glimmers, and unsettles—not to obscure the past, but to seed something new from its soil. In the ancient city of Rome, whose marble monuments often speak with the authority of history, Mutu introduces the language of transformation, calling us to listen, to look again, and to imagine otherwise. Wangechi Mutu Black Soil Poems is at Galleria Borghese, Rome until September 14, 2025.
Observer
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Amsterdam honours its own Golden Age sculpture master
Imposing but delicate marble sculptures of Graeco-Roman-style figures grace the vaulted corridors of a huge palace. But this isn't Florence or Rome. This is Amsterdam. As part of celebrations to mark 750 years since the founding of the Dutch capital, the city is unveiling from Wednesday an exhibition dedicated to Artus Quellinus, the 17th century "sculptor of Amsterdam." Virtually unknown outside Flanders in present-day Belgium where he made his name, the city has Quellinus to thank for the decorations on the Royal Palace that dominates the city's iconic Dam Square. Quellinus "lifted our sculpture to a new level" with a fresh style, Dutch art historian Bieke van der Mark told AFP. Born in Antwerp in 1606, Quellinus sculpted with marble, as well as ivory and clay. His style, heavily influenced by Flemish baroque painter Reubens, was a complete novelty for the Protestant Netherlands, used to a more sober style at the time. His subjects -- mythological figures, chubby angels, and animals -- are perhaps a nod to the great masters he would have seen while an apprentice in Rome. "Like (17th century Italian master Gian Lorenzo) Bernini, he masters the way the flesh looks, and hands," said Van der Mark. "It's really fantastic," said the 46-year-old, pointing to a statue of the God Saturn devouring his son, whom he holds in his huge veiny hands. Organised by the Amsterdam Royal Palace and the Rijksmuseum, this is the first-ever retrospective devoted to Quellinus, displaying more than 100 of his works from national and international collections. "We spent quite some time to select and to collect, to bring together all these very special works... to show Quellinus at his best," said curator Liesbeth van Noortwijk. "Because I think he's an artist that deserves that." "We dare to call him the Bernini of the North... And I think this is no exaggeration," she told AFP. The decorations of Amsterdam's Royal Palace, built as a town hall between 1648 and 1665, remains Quellinus's statement work, with an iconic figure on the roof of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders. Now, nearly 400 years on, the city hopes the show will raise awareness of the hitherto unrecognised "sculptor of Amsterdam." —AFP
