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