1:35 Městská kašna

The fountain outlived more wars than the houses around it

Public water sources stood on European squares from the baroque period on, and many of them survived even front-line fighting when the buildings around them burned to the ground. A stone basin is low, heavy and has nothing to burn, so in period photographs of ruined towns the fountain is often the only element left whole. For a diorama it is a rewarding motif: it gives the scene a center and at the same time a sense of scale, because its height is intimately familiar to the viewer.

What it looked like during the war

In besieged towns an ornament became a utility place again, where the inhabitants came for water when the water main burst. Sculptural decoration in exposed places was boxed in by the authorities with sandbags or wooden casing, and that is a detail with which tension can be added to a scene. The basin was usually out of service, empty or filled with rubble.

Working with plaster

Plaster castings behave differently from resin. They are brittle, they take sanding with abrasive paper and filling with putty, and the absorbent surface has to be sealed before painting, otherwise it will drink the paint unevenly. Stone is painted in two steps: a lighter base and then a dark glaze running into the joints. In the traces of water, green algae stains stay on the windward side, while lime deposits run vertically below the overflow.

Setting it into the terrain

Sink the base slightly below the paving, so that the fountain does not look as if it were placed on top. A boundary of dirt forms around the rim, and the darkest shade belongs there, while the joint between the stone and the paving deserves fine dust so that the transition does not look harsh.