2 Pre 17th Century Influences on Landscape Design

Major Characteristics of Pre 17th

Century Influences on Landscape

Hortykim

Hortykim, Otago Polytechnic 2010

Origins of the Garden-2


If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckIf you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck

Welcome to the interesting study of our garden history where you will look at major characteristics that span from the Neolithic age through to contemporary New Zealand gardens.

Gardening is an ancient art in which people have created gardens for a combination of practicality and style.

In order for us to create gardens it is important to study design principles,elements and features from the past in order to see where we are today.Enjoy your journey back in time and be inspired by the past garden styles from all over the world-many of which we will be able to link to gardens which exist today.

Origins of the Garden


If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck

Your next part of the journey is to look at the major characteristics and influences on the landscape that come from the Middle ages which will include the Mannerism and Baroque periods.

The Middle Ages is a period of European history that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire and encompass one of the most exciting and bloodthirsty periods in English and European History.



As with other historic periods exact starting and ending dates can vary. Generally ,however, the Middle Ages (or Medieval) is considered to begin in the 5th Century and last until the 16th Century.

During this period, conditions were unsettled due to ‘barbarian unrest’. As a result, much more modest gardens developed in the context of:•unrest•remembrance of Roman order•Christian influence



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckGardening during the Middle Ages had a primary purpose of providing food for households.

As security was required in making a garden in the medieval period, Medieval gardens tended to be within:•a monastery•a castle•a walled town•a village protected by a castle

Castrense Amphitheater and Monastic Gardens, Rome, Italy. a Ital




Of these the most is known about Monastic Gardens.

Monastic Gardens gave rise to the earliest botanic gardens.

Features of monastic gardens later developed in Europe with gardens becoming larger as times became more peaceful.

The Botanical Garden of Padova (or Garden of the Simples) in a 16th century print; in the background, the Basilica of Sant'Antonio.




Main Features of Medieval and Monastic Gardens:

•enclosed square or rectangular •development of ‘knot’ gardens•hedges and/or trellis work to create tunnels or pavilions with plants trained over them•grassy sections with wild flowers (Cloister Garden)•raised banks (turf seats)•raised garden beds with edging•fruit trees which are trained and grafted•a raised section in the middle or edge primarily for viewing the garden

The Orto Botanico di Padova is the world's oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location.




Monastic gardens were designed to provide the monks with their own food and medicines so most had three main gardens:

• the herb, or infirmary garden

• the orchard

• the kitchen garden

but may also include

• a fish pond

• and the cloister garden

College Garden is a private garden of Westminster Abbey in London.A thousand years ago it was the infirmary garden of the monastery, and it is said to be the oldest garden in England under continuous cultivation.




The medieval type of walled garden lasted in England until the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.

By the 17th Century a simple formal garden design pattern had developed.

As times grew more peaceful, garden areas grew larger and extended beyond encircling walls.

Seventeenth Century period garden at the Geffrye Museum.Feverfew with purple clary sage - photograph Sunniva Harte

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.




In 16th Century Europe, particularly France and Italy, medieval features grew into intricate extravagant displays during the Renaissance.

Square enclosures, divided raised beds and knot gardens became more complex. Tunnels and arbors of trellises linked house architecture to garden.

Fountains became more used and much was made of newly imported plants, with greater use of decorative plantings.

The Medici Villa Petraia, near Florence, laid out by Niccolò Tribolo, epitomizes the Italian garden of the early Renaissance before the grander architectural schemes of the 16th Century.




The following slides include Gardens of the Early Italian Renaissance.

The first slide shows the oldest existing Italian Renaissance garden at the Villa Medici in Fiesole, Florence. It was created by Giovanni de' Medici(1421–1463).

Check your support notes for more details orhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance_garden

Villa Medici in Fiesole, Florence with its fantastic view over Florence.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe Palazzo Piccolomini at Pienza was built by Enea Silvio Piccolomini who was Pope from 1458 to 1464, under the name of Pius II.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe Villa Madama, situated on the slopes of Monte Mario, overlooking Rome, was begun by Pope Leo X.

The villa had a great circular courtyard, and passages led from the courtyard to the great loggia from which views could be gained of the garden and Rome.




The middle of the 16th Century (gardens of the High Renaissance) saw the construction by the Medicis and other wealthy families and individuals, of a series of magnificent gardens.

They were usually sited on a hilltop or slopes of a mountain and had a series of symmetrical terraces, one above the other, along a central axis.

Villa Castello, Tuscany, (1538)



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckVilla Castello was the project of Cosimo de' Medici, first Duke of Tuscany, begun when he was only seventeen.

It was designed by Niccolò Tribolo who designed two other gardens: the Giardino dei Semplici (1545) and the Boboli Gardens (1550) for Cosimo.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe garden was laid out on a gentle slope with an upper garden filled with orange trees, and a lower garden that was subdivided into garden rooms with walls of hedges, rows of trees and tunnels of citrus trees and cedars.

Statue of January, Villa Castello




Tribolo created an elaborate grotto, decorated with groups of statues of exotic animals which symbolized the virtues and accomplishments of past members of Medici family.

Water flowed from the beaks, wings and claws of the animals into marble basins below each niche. A gate could close suddenly behind visitors, and they would be soaked by hidden fountains!

One niche inside the grotto of the Villa Castello, Florence




The Villa d'Este at Tivoli is one of the grandest and best-preserved of the Italian Renaissance gardens.

It was created by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara, and Lucretia Borgia

Garden of Villa d'Este. Fish ponds.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckMannerism is the term applied to certain aspects of artistic style, mainly Italian, in the period between the High Renaissance of the early 16th Century and the beginnings of Baroque art in the early 17th Century.

Jacopo Pontormo, Entombment, 1528; Santa Felicità, Florence



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckMannerist paintings were stylish, polished and complex, their composition bizarre, the subject matter fantastic. This also describes mannerist gardens which appeared beginning about 1560.

Michelangelo was one of the great creative exponents of Mannerism and it was his style which raised the standard of art to a new height. Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. Bartholomew is

shown holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin. The face of the skin is recognizable as Michelangelo



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck0kkaJUmi Mannerist gardens were furnished with dramatic features and used for outdoor masques and parties. Virtuoso water displays were admired and the creation of other garden features to impress one’s friends also became an objective.

The gardens of the Villa Lante are what the villa is famous for and especially the water features, from cascades to fountains and dripping grottoes.




Movement and drama became important to Mannerist gardens.

Gardens were less calm and more given to theatrical display.

Hydraulic marvels and elaborate water features were included in Mannerist gardens.

Dramatic sites were chosen and embellished with exotic sculpture. Circles and squares were popular.

The visual and harmonious choreography of water at Villa Lante was achieved byTommaso Ghinucci, a hydraulics engineer and architect from Siena.




Sacro Bosco is a bizarre garden without equal. It has many giant sculptures carved from rock. Stylistically, it represents a step towards the drama of the Baroque. It pokes gentle fun at the egotistical iconography of the Este and the Medici families and is also a pre-cursor of the English landscape garden.

Sacro Bosco, the ogre at the mouth of hell.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe Early Baroque period is associated with a desire to re-establish the authority of the Catholic church and the power of the princes.

Garden layout became a way of demonstrating the importance of popes, princes and dukes. Gardens of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe Garden à la française, or Baroque French gardens climaxed during the reign of Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) and his head gardener of Versailles, André Le Nôtre (1613–1700) whose inspiration for these gardens initially came from the Italian Renaissance garden.

Portrait of André Le Nôtre by Carlo Maratta



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThe French opened the garden up to enormous proportions compared to their Italian predecessors.

Their gardens epitomize man dominating and manipulating nature to show his authority, wealth, and power.

The gardens would have organized spaces meant to be elaborate stages for entertaining guests with plays, concerts and fireworks displays.

Basin of Apollo, Gardens of Versailles



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckA formal and symmetrical garden style placed the house centrally on an enormous and mainly flat property.

A large central axis that gets narrower further from the main house, forces the viewer's perspective to the horizon line, making the property look even larger.

Gardens of the Chateau of Versailles (Île-de-France)



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckThere are statues and water features which have mythological references and tell a story or reference the owner of the property.

There are small, almost imperceptible grade changes that help conceal the gardens surprises as well as elongate the gardens views.

Pegasus fountain at Villa Lante




Can you define what the following commonly used features mean? AlléeAxisBosquetCanalCul de sacFountainsGrottos with rocailleOrangerieParterre de broderiePatte d’oie (Goose foot)Tapis VertTopiary

References and Resources


http://wapedia.mobi/en/History_of_gardening?t=3.5. - History of Gardeninghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages - Middle Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerism - Mannerismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_le_N%C3%B4tre - Andre Le Notrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque - Baroquehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance_garden - Italian Renaissance Gardens

Brooks, J., Room Outside, Thames & Hudson, 1969 Newton, N.T., Design on the Land, Belknap, Harvard University, 1971 Thacker, C. , The History of Gardens, Reed,1979 The full online text of Marie-Luise Gothein's History of Garden Art

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2 Pre 17th Century Influences on Landscape Design