Garden Art Blog #6

    From the 17^th to the 18^th century, the English style gardens went from the formal baroque garden to the flowing landscape gardens. Influenced by the British agricultural revolution as well as the anti-French movement within in England, which prompted the dismantling of the Baroque gardens, these new flowing gardens gained great popularity. There was also a significant reform in political, economic, philosophy, democracy and technology as well as a push into the new neoclassical artistic movement. All of these factors combined lead to a new sense of individualism and philosophy leading from structured gardens to free flowing gardens.

A example of a Ha-Ha

Charles Bridgeman began to design English Landscapes. He was one of the first gardeners to design in the English Landscape style and is most well known for his design of the most expansive country estate, Stowe. He invented one of the most well-known and popular English garden features, the Ha-Ha. The Ha-Ha became popular due to its allowance to protect the garden from animals without the disturbance of the landscape. Bridgeman is also accredited with being one of the first gardeners to deformalize gardens and move away from the formality and rigidity of gardens of the past. Although the transition from baroque can be seen in Stowe, through the geometrically styled path and water features, they are minute formal features in comparison to the informal expansive landscape, ponds and lakes. However, these seemingly random features were carefully placed. He would arrange feature to draw your eye to a central feature such as an amphitheater or garden buildings. Unfortunately, there are few untouched Bridgemen’s gardens; many were redesigned by William Kent.

                                          Charles Bridgeman's design of Stowe

            William Kent took Charles Bridgeman’s ideas of a free flowing English garden one step further.  He introduced the English landscape garden and his designs combined art and nature as one. He tried to shape the land so naturally that you wouldn’t even know it had been shaped. He removed most of the formalized features in the Stowe garden but added statues, buildings and ancient myths to showcase an allegorical story as you walk through the garden. For example, one path in Stowe represents the path to virtue and is peppered with features that allude to this virtue (worthiness, greatness, etc.) Although a notorious drunk and highly unreliable, Kent made great contributions to the British landscapes.

William Kent

“Capability” Brown was the head gardener for Stowe and got his nickname from informing people that their land could be improved upon, his goal was to garden all of England. He dismissed most of Kent’s allegories and focused more on the natural aspect and beauty of gardens. Browns gardens were free flowing with scatted trees, man made lakes and clumps. He was known for having grandeur visions and would alter the landscape in order to complete and fulfill his vision. His inspiration for all of his gardens was England; he toyed with topography in order to accomplish an aesthetically pleasing look. He believed that gardening was to improve upon nature and would use hard to detect techniques like framing a castle in a large field, strategically placing trees to draw your eye to the castle. These three designers used their own ideas and techniques to influence landscape gardens at Stowe and contribute to the evolution of landscape design. When visiting the garden, you must also visit the amazing library within the castle, although many of the famous manuscripts were sold when the 2nd Duke went bankrupts.

Stowe Garden

For more information on the Stowe Garden, where it is located and the visiting hours please see this website: http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/stowe_landscape_garden

Picture Resources: https://architessica.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/the-significance-of-the-ha-ha/

www.bu.edu

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/133630313917212505/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48028479@N00/7865890248/

Post #4

What Different Influences did the Luxembourg Garden have?

This past summer I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Paris and stay in a hotel across from the Jardin Du Luxembourg. Every morning I would go running through the park and see the grand palace, the play ground for children and the amazing statues and water features. I could not help but be taken aback by these amazing features. The palace was first commissioned in 1611 by Marie de Medici who was married to King Henri IV and was from Italian descent. However, upon her husbands assassination she became a regent for her son King Louis XIII, but was unhappy with her residence of Palais du Louvre.

She decided she would build a palace and garden resembling the place that she loved, Florence. She based the palace off of the Palazzio Pitti and had the gardens resemble the gardens that she loved in Florence, the Boboli Gardens. In true Renaissance fashion the architect, Salomon de Brosse, constructed two terraces along the axis of the palace which lined up with circular basin and fountain, the Fontaine Medici.

However, in 1630 more land was purchased to enlarge the garden and the design was then entrusted to Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie who had worked on many gardens in France, such as the Chateau Versailles. Jacques had a passion for the style of the formal french garden so he proceeded to design the gardens in lines, rectangles and squares with a fountain in the middle. After this expansion of the garden it was sold by King Louis XVIII and used by the Carthusian Monks and their monastery. There they built vineyards and nursery gardens, but after the French Revolution it was confiscated to be expanded upon.

The architect Jean Chalgrin, who constructed the Arc de Triomphe was assigned the task to renovate the garden. He decided to keep the original Medici fountain as well as some of the vineyards and nurseries put in by the monks along with a formal french style of gardening. He also made sure there was perspective down the whole garden that could be seen by the original terraces.

In 1848 the garden then started getting adorned with statues of queens and saints which you can sill see today. But after Napoleon III, Baron Haussman decided to change the whole layout of the park to accommodate for new roads and streets, due to the changes and expansion of Paris, and moved the Medici Fountain to where it is today. Garbriel Davioud was also commissioned to build the gates and fences and the English style garden houses and garden along the pathway running by the Medici fountain.

Overall there were many influence on the Luxembourg garden: from French, Italian and English along with a few modern features that have been added such as playground and tennis courts. However, no one can argue the beauty of this garden and the history you experience when walking through it today.

For more picture, and location of the garden see: famouswonders.com/jardin-du-luxembourg/

All pictures are my own.

Blog Post 5

King Louis the XIV was born on September the 5th, 1683 and became King of France in 1643. He was one of France's most well known and longest ruling Kings in French history. One his most noted accomplishments, and probably most famous garden and palace in the world, was the Palace of Versailles.

When Louis XIV was young an uprising caused him to flee from Paris. Louis XIV never forgot or forgave the nobility for the uprising so he decided to live most of his life at his fathers' hunting lodge, Versailles. Louis XIV decided to expand upon Versailles in a large and grandeur way. The grounds were expanded upon to house the entire nobility and court of France. The garden's of Versailles were so large they could not be seen in one day, and it took more water than Paris used to run all of the fountains the garden contained. The palace and garden were truly a statement of power, success and decadence.

In addition to building the palace outside of Paris due to the uprising, he also created a power dynamic by having all of the French nobility and court live in the palace with him. This was done due to his paranoia of another uprising and was a significant aspect of the Palace. The close proximity of the nobility allowed Louis XIV to keep a watchful eye over his nobility and prevent the nobility from cultivating a stronger power base outside of the watch of the King. The distance of Versailles from the heart of Paris also shielded Louis from an uprising from the people of Paris, it was his sanctuary and declaration of power.

The palace and gardens attracted may visitors. The palace stunned the visitors with it's 700 rooms and 67 staircases, but what really left an visitor in awe was the stunning gardens. Once exiting the back of the palace you were able to look upon the large scale garden with it's amazing fountains, groves and garden features. If the large scale of the garden and palace weren't enough of a statement of Louis XIV power and wealth he portrayed allegories of himself throughout the garden and palace. He thought of himself as the sun king, as well as took a liking to Apollo, the god. He created a grand water fountain of Apollo and his chariot emerging from the sea, the ultimate statement of power and wealth.

This grand display of wealth shocked and awed many of it's visitors. Many countries tried to imitate it's style and grandeur but none truly succeeded. The garden and palace became the symbol of power and wealth and the center piece of many parties, cultural events, balls and plays. It's impact politics and culture are hard to measure due to it's wide reach. Louis the XIV was the longest reigning monarch and he made his impact on history. This impact and influence was pan-European and can even be seen here, in Denmark, in the Fredriksburg castle.

Picture Sources: http://holidayandtraveleurope.blogspot.dk/2013/02/france-versailles-gardens.html
http://www.1000lonelyplaces.com/phot-blog/palace-of-versailles-the-palace-of-dreams/
http://www.see-and-do-france.com/palace-of-versailles.html
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/117164027777201053/

If interested in learning more about King Louis XIV here is a great site to visit: http://www.biography.com/people/louis-xiv-9386885#!

If interested in learning more about the palace and garden itself here is it's official site: http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage

Garden Art Post 3

 Explain, with examples, the ways in which the Renaissance spirit of a rediscovery of the classics and the new Humanist ways of thinking were expressed in the design and content of the Italian Renaissance garden

The Renaissance was a period of humanist movement, a rethinking of life and how it can be shown and expressed within the context of the garden. The Renaissance brought about the flow of free thinking ideas and with that lead to the design of the garden becoming open, in contrast to the closed in design of the garden in the medieval gardens. Gardens became outward flowing which allowed people to enjoy their gardens in the open, away from home. 

The renaissance also brought about the importance of man and human nature, the italians use gardens to show the human power and as a place to enhance this human power. They used terraces to make the garden a pleasure to look down and out upon to represent God and nature as well as plant such as rare citrus and fruit trees to show their importance. Below you can see an example of a Renaissance garden and it's expansive terrace as well as statues of the human body, another important area studied within the renaissance.

http://mascaraeyesbristol.blogspot.dk/2014/12/italian-renaissance-garden.html

Because the Renaissance prompted new and outward thinking the gardens became a place where this could happen. This reflection and outward thinking time was know as "otium" as usually occurred within private villas. The gardens in the villas became expansive and the central feature of many homes. They were a place to showcase their wealth as well as invited many great philosophers and thinker over to ponder and create their next new idea or master piece. It was used as a place and thinking, evaluating where man was in the universe and their relationship with God as well as nature. An example of a villa would be the Villa d'Este, this was a huge expansive garden known for it's interest in science due to the water feature that required hydraulics. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_d'Este

In addition to features such as hydraulics the Renaissance gardens used geometric patterns and linear perspective to showcase science and math skills as seen below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gardening#mediaviewer/File:Villandry_Jardins_style_Renaissance.jpg

For more information this is a great sight with in depth detail into several different gardens:http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/ml_gothein_history_garden_art_design/early_baroque_gardens_italy