The rivers at Versailles, France.
Bronze statues symbolising the four great sea-going rivers of France and its next four principal rivers adorn the Water Parterre. In Antiquity, the Greeks and then the Romans depicted their rivers in the form of reclining bearded old men, crowned with reeds, holding an oar or a horn of plenty, symbol of the water as a source of wealth. To identify the river and the region it fertilised, the sculptor of the Loire added asparagus and artichokes, vegetables highly appreciated by the Court in the 17th century and cultivated in the Loire valley. |
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