ITALIAN RENAISSANCE GARDEN

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INTRODUCTION• The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late

15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond, for contemplation, and for the enjoyment of the sights, sounds and smells of the garden itself.

• In the late Renaissance, the gardens became larger, grander and more symmetrical, and were filled with fountains, statues, grottoes, water organs and other features designed to delight their owners and amuse and impress visitors.

• The style was imitated throughout Europe, influencing the gardens of the French Renaissance and the English garden.

• Or in practical, A Renaissance Garden is a place for retreat from a hectic world. • It’s for pleasure and peace. • It’s for wandering, pottering and contemplating. • Any practical elements such as vegetables, fruit and herbs are woven into the

garden design so they appear ornamental.

HISTORY

• Italian renaissance gardens originate from the 15th century in Italy, where proud villas with luxurious and extravagant gardens told the tale of a life centered on leisure and prosperity.

• The few who lived in these magnificent villas and roamed these fascinating gardens were fortunate during the time of the plague, usually avoiding it entirely.

• The Italian renaissance garden innovated the art of gardening as well as the architecture of waterways.

• During this period of experimentation and invention, the owners of the villas commissioned architects to build special pipes that would create fountains with continuously flowing water.

• Prior to the Italian Renaissance, Italian Medieval gardens were enclosed by walls, and were devoted to growing vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs, or, in the case of monastery gardens, for silent meditation and prayer.

• The Italian Renaissance garden broke down the wall between the garden, the house, and the landscape outside.

• The Italian Renaissance garden, like Renaissance art and architecture, emerged from the rediscovery by Renaissance scholars of classical Roman models.

Influences and Principles of the Gardens

• The Italian renaissance gardens had many guiding influences and principles.• The Roman gods and goddesses were inspirations for commissioned artwork

displayed in the gardens. • Domestic and wild animals influenced the shapes of topiaries.• The entire landscape of the garden was meant to be practical as well as

aesthetically pleasing. • Unlike medieval gardens, the renaissance garden was not the secluded area

specifically for growing herbs and vegetables. • It was made a part of the landscape of the home, complimenting the house

instead of being hidden from view.

• The ancient Roman garden's depicted in artwork and literature were a major part in the inspiration for such gardens.

• According to Leon Battista Alberti, some of the principle aspects of a Renaissance garden included an area for shade, climbing vines and topiaries, evenly spaced trees, rare plants, marble columns, vases, and statues.

• The first Renaissance text to include garden design was De Re Aedificatoria ('The Ten Books of Architecture'), by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472).

• He described what a garden should look like and how it should be used.• He argued that a villa should both be looked at and a place to look from; that the

house should be placed above the garden, where it could be seen and the owner could look down into the garden.

• Alberti wrote: "The construction will give pleasure to the visitor if, when they leave the city, they see the villa in all its charm, as if to seduce and welcome the new arrivals. Toward this end, I would place it on a slightly elevated place. I would also have the road climb so gently that it fools those who take it to the point that they do not realize how high they have climbed until they discover the countryside below.“

MAGNIFICIENCE OF RENAISSANCE GARDEN

• While the early Italian Renaissance gardens were designed for contemplation and pleasure with tunnels of greenery, trees for shade, an enclosed giardino segreto (secret garden) and fields for games and amusements, the Medici, the ruling dynasty of Florence, used gardens to demonstrate their own power and magnificence.

• During the first half of the sixteenth century, magnificence came to be perceived as a princely virtue, and all over the Italian peninsula architects, sculptors, painters, poets, historians and humanist scholars were commissioned to concoct a magnificent image for their powerful patrons.

DESCRIPTION• Whether it be from the inspiration of the ancient Greek and Roman, Medieval or

Islamic - Italian Renaissance gardens are soaked in myth, tradition and history. • Italian Renaissance Gardens evolved from many sources, in particular the Arab

garden traditions although Islamic symbolism was given a Christian interpretation. • The other major influence was a revival of interest in the cultures of antiquity, and

the Renaissance designers constantly tried to emulate and surpass the ancient Greek and Roman achievements.

• This included accommodating antique sculptures or copies of antique figures like the copy from a mould of the original 5th century Capitoline wolf with Romulus and Remus in the Italian garden.

• Renaissance gardens were also an evolution of the Medieval garden and many of the elements from that earlier era were retained such as the high surrounding walls, flat square beds with edges lined with plants, beds of simples, flowery meads, and the arched trellis work.

• The major difference in the Renaissance gardens was the introduction of a strong central axis and the discovery of linear perspective as a link between the main buildings and the different portions of the garden.

• Gardens became separated into compartments that could be named, enclosed, and hidden to create an unfolding sequence of spaces.

• The axis organized and unified the whole composition.• Geometry was seen as a reflection of a divine and cosmic order and a lot of

Renaissance study was focused both on trying to find geometric patterns in nature and then trying to recreate this codified order in architecture, art, town planning and gardens.

• Art and science were strongly linked and a study of proportion and the human figure created a framework for a classical order of perspective, proportion, symmetry, and geometric forms, circles and triangles.

Piccolomini Gardens Villa Medici in Fiesole.