Lecture 2:

There is a difference between Landscape and Garden. They differ in scale, typology and implementation.

A garden is a closed space, it is limited where the relation of man and nature is direct, while landscape is
much broader and open field of many components: nature, settlement, where the relationship is more
about the image of the country.

Garden is the synonym of paradise or a place of delights since it is closed and disconnected from the
daily environment.

In ancient times, the garden was more a sacred wood and pristine parts of forests than a garden in the
meaning we understand today. The one we know today is artificial,it is fabricated by man, however
landscape in natural and manipulated by man settlement(the way the community, population, the ppl
dwell in it, transform the natural landscape).

So the garden is a composition, a piece of art, it is a human work. Its concern is not to simulate the
natural landscape, but to stylize nature by working with its elements. The garden shows the re-creation
of nature in the artistic point of view.

Greece and Rome

Greece:

Persians established a prototype that had been implemented in all gardens which is the quarter garden.
This was extensively used by Islam because this division was representing the image of paradise and was
helpful and fictional for the medieval garden in the Christian world because it allows the gardens that
are created in the cloisters to be used for herbs, vegetables and plants.

This question of division into 4 had this potential of multiplying a unit into multiples units so that the
agriculture in the economy is spread more progress rapidly.

Persian gardens had been a fundamental influence for greek gardens and probably for European
gardens in the classical and modern times. Their place has been established in the intellectual sphere
where Plato starts teaching in the planted gymnasium of the Academia (school teaching arts,
philosophy, sciences, sculpture and sports). Creating by that a partnership between philosophy and the
art of gardening, this lived 1000 years during the School of Athens and reappears with the humanists of
the Italian Renaissance. This learning approach had been used especially in Athens since it is knows for
its democracy where ppl used to argue freely without any limitations.

There are still ruins of palaestria of avenues that were providing some sort of shelters from the sun
inorder for the players to exercise. In this process the relationship with nature became more anchored
in the consciousness of the greek person
 This is the Persian archetype of a garden that is used in islam,
baroque, renaissance ,medieval times. It stopped being used in neoclassicism

Gardens of philosophers: this approach has been shrined to Muses which often the form of a rocky
grotto or nympheum watered by a fountain or spring shady porticos, built in imitation of the palaestrae
of the gymnasia but also used for the display of sculpture, and tree-lined walks.

Roman Garden:

They built over the greek heritage especially with Alexander conquests. Greek culture has been spread
in the Mediterranean region. And the religious associations were overwhelmed by artistic and social
ones. Elements of gardens remain, caves, nympheums which were shrines became architectural
ornaments.

All civilizations build from the previous ones. In landscape nothing is from scratch

In the Mediterranean world, the summer heat made shadow and Water the favorite poetic themes, but
especially themes that are fundamentally related to the topic of pleasure, more specifically the pleasure
in the garden. Of course the main reference for Romans was the oriental parks and gardens. For that
reason these big enclosures, with course of water, aromatic bushes, fruit trees with animals and
ornamental birds were often divided to four parts, parts for hunting and other parts for pleasure
gardens. This division into 4 ( Persian gardens) is allowing create two of this quarter system to dedicated
for hunting however the rest are more organized for pleasure gardens.

However, an interesting innovation appears in that time – painting called topia –representing
architecture of garden in a picturesque framework. It is Landscapes of mountains and cliffs or
representing shores of lakes and rivers.

This is one type of landscape representation that was found on the walls of the portico inside the
courtyard of the villa. It acts as an extension of the space of the courtyard to the outside.

 One of the important villas was Casa Dei Vittii: it is a showcase of a typical roman house in
Pompeii.

Hellenistic heritage provides the link between Greece and Rome.

(Hellenic is the classical Greek period- Hellenistic is the transition from Greek to roman civilization)
Gardens of Pompeii were of two types: Peristyle Garden with colonnades as the Case dei Vitti where
plants surround a central basin; or houses with central court leading to a rear garden Xystus.

Pompeii-Ruins-Pompeii-The House of Vetti:

Peristyle garden which is a garden surrounded by persityles which are series of columns with walkways
separating the colonnade from the habitable space. It is typical since it contains water and plantation
There were two main characteristics of Pompeian gardens: Interpenetration of the house and garden;
second is the axial plan. Renaissance had inspired those characteristics for its villas. The living area is
open towards the court and the center of the peristyle, allowing a big perspective crossing the whole
house and the garden.

The intention to extend further the landscape is achieved by paint on the back wall, showing trees,
fountains, trellis. This type of painting called trompe l'oeil according to Pliny was invented by Ludius and
made to provide the impression of a big space.

Other than paintings and reproduction of miniature landscape, the term topia was utilized in its Latin
form topiarius to indicate the gardener who practices the art of cutting trees or topiary art for
ornamentation.

In this house above, we have the first open sky roof, it is called a pluvium to collect the rainwater. The
second one is the peristyle garden which is the typical. We can also see that it is made in an axial way to
show a bigger perspective of the house

Xystus or the proper garden of the Pompeian garden had a specific feature which is a watercourse in its
center running along its length, with paved alignment with marble or blue painted cement. This
watercourse is flanked by flower beds and geometric alignment of fruit trees, like cypress, bay tree,
oleander, almonds, peaches, pomegranates, pear, quince, apple and cherries.

Lucullus:

• Lucullus was the important creator of roman gardens; he became a legend due to his luxurious
gardens. His gardens were located on top of hills, conceived as a series of terraces and stairs. This type
of composition with the site became a powerful point in the Renaissance period which is the
architectural transformation of the site by terraces crossing the main axis of the house which ends by a
colonnade.

• Mountain became the preferred places for the construction of villas because building is exposed
to the healthy breeze in the summer heat and having panoramic views towards the city.

• Romans attached a real importance for the site, not only for aesthetic purposes but also comfort
and healthy reasons. The orientation of south-east was recommended by classical author like Varro and
Palladius 4th AD. and later adopted by authors like Leon Battista Albeti and Andrea Palladio.

We can see in this picture, the multiplication of the terraces

which allow a change in the placement and to have diverse vistas panoramic views over the surrounding
landscapes.

• This orientation of south-east is chosen for the low level of the sun during winter. Sun will hit
the portico, providing shades and shelter in summer (sun is high). Those colonnades called gymnasia or
palaestrae like the Greek ones are shelter for promenade. sometimes we can find 2 or 3 rows of
colonnades. They were located on terraces that allowing to change the promenade location and the
view.

• Aviaries are also provided in roman gardens for entertainment, we had there animal shows, and
they were constructed as a circular pavilions surrounding a water basin.

• Vitruvius commented the intimate relation between theater and the garden design, by
describing the layering of trees, caves, mountains up to the intimate landscapes. Fountains were
monumental to a point to constitute specific scenery in the landscape as theatrical setting.

• According to Vitrivius, Romans granted an important care to the promenade in the garden. In
the Laurentian villa of Pliny the Younger, promenades conceived as a barefoot walk.

Midieval Garden:

From the fall of the Roman Empire till the Renaissance, there are more than 10 centuries that we call
Middle-Age. There were some factors which hampered the expression towards the nature, expression of
Nature's sentiment.

Early Middle-Age:

- Barbarian invasions led the western civilization to the fall of population,

- to the loss of art treasures,

- and ruin of roads, of irrigation systems and in the culture in general.

In these conditions, man was in the search of his material life. The earth work is a struggle against
hunger.

• Adding to that, this civilization couldn't know the Greek heritage, due to the Barbarian Invasions
on one hand and the Islamic expansion on the other hand.

• This decline started to be reversed with Carolingians (from 7th to the 10th century), it is a
dynasty of kings, and the most renowned member is Charlemagne.

• This first renaissance showed the recovery of the economic activities. It is a new political order,
with which emerged an expansion of the cultural, artistic and scientific life.

So the early gardens in the medieval time appeared as cloisters rather than in domestic areas

Here, we encountered the problem of representation of the relation between man and nature.

 Actually, this relation didn't occur in the open space of the cloister, but thru the closed space of
the church. It is the church, with its wall paintings, mosaics, sculptures and stained-glass
windows which bring this relation to a symbolic level. The religious requirements are behind this
type of relation which we can call Christian anthropomorphism.

• The problematic is that Europe needed a "saint empire" in order to provide Christianity a
powerful unity to contrast with the Roman Empire which had been a political project.

• In this ideology, Christianity had abolished the direct relation to nature, the church had replaced
this relation by a symbolic expressions.

Any kind of presentation of a garden during that time shows multiple of signs whether the fish, music or
anything that focuses the attention on religious matters and importance of religion in our daily life.

So the garden before was more planted in the cloister and with a main purpose to plant aromatic plants,
vegetables and flowers that have religious connotations.

Fontenay (Bourgogne), former Cistercian abbey

This quarter division is allowing to plant diversity of implantations either oriented towards food system
or religious matter.
With time, we started having this introverted system more open especially in the literature. The garden
became a literary theme, for knights and their adventures, for magician and fairies; it is a garden with
traps for the hero to win his beloved or to attain glory.

We can see in these two pictures, the absence of correct perspective. There is no realistic conception of
space.

The system of planted squares became like chessboard where we can always add other modules for
other purposes. This system, called additive still in use in our time. Finally we have to say that the
medieval garden had played an important role to agriculture and agronomy. As for the landscape, it is
observed from the windows; therefore there was no direct relationship with the landscape.

The Renaissance :

 During the early renaissance, the Carolingians and specifically Charlemagne, started creating a
relationship with one of the most important civilizations which is the Islamic civilication. In the
narratives, there is notable exchange in the knowledge between Charlemagne and Haroun
Rachid. Thic cultural exchange led to a an economic exchange.
 In the end of the 14th century Man started seeing the world with a new eye. The world was like
a huge site of exploration, where arts, thoughts and sciences were re-examined.
 Man discovered Plato, Pythagoras, Ovid, and Hippocrates. It is in Italy, more specifically in
Florence where born this movement of spirit. The incarnation of this intellectual sphere was
Leonardo Da Vinci.
 The Magnificent, Laurenzo de Medici and his grand-father start constructing in Florence gardens
where expressed this new ideal. These gardens intended to glorify the spirit of man.
 Architects were the designers of these gardens. The interests were the connection between the
garden and the house, the equilibrium between constructed masses and green masses; they
multiply forms, topiary arts, mazes, basins and fountains and antique and modern sculptures.
 Villa Cafaggiolo: North of Florence, build as fortified castle in XIVe century, developed by Michelozzo
di Bartolomeo in 1451, the villa is conceived in front of a forest, which is considered as background.
It is One of the earliest villas and this is shown from the architectural language that is typical to the
medieval architecture. This is an early approach to the renaissance garden where we can see that
the garden is behind the villa and not on the front face of it. The gardens are layed out as squares.
The early renaissance approach of these squares is shown through the creation of a border which is
shown as a hedge surrounding these squares. On the left side we can see a farms including
vegetables while the main garden is not even axial to the villa, however it is ornamental and
decorative. This garden is leading to a closed garden or fountain.

Villa Medici of Castello: The discovery of the garden is prepared by the stroll in the grove of
Cypresses and laurels. The intention is to create an effect of surprise for the
visitor. We can remark the specific treatment of hedges creating triangles intersecting in circles
punctuated by balls. The garden is behind the villa. It is on the rear side such that after we enter the
house we discover the garden. We can notice the specific treatment of hedging creating triangles
intersecting with circles. The hedge here is more stylized due to the diagonals introduced. This is the
proper of the renaissance as a style using the diagonals and the punctuation at the center. What is weird
about it is the non-harmonization of the between the garden design and the villa itself. There is no
connection between the façade and the garden. Furthermore, the axial approach in the garden is not
found on the façade but the main ax on the plan is leading to a cave on the rear side of the garden
where animals are sculpted in marble. Behind, we find a wood land with a pond, in its middle stands the
sculpture of the God of river, Apennine, the work of Bartolommeo Ammannati 1565.
Villa Medicis La Petraia :
On the frontage of the building, we start moving on site in terraces and this is one of the important
features of the renaissance gardens. As for staircases on the terraces, they are perpendicular to the
façade. We can see the beginning of the diversity of platforms, each one has its own type on treatment
and its importance.

Sebastiano Sergio was an architect during renaissance who made a

dictionary of ground treatment. This dictionary has been
extensively used by architects during that time to design the
ground and the treatment of the ground which was called
parterre. Those designs or curvatures that are created on low level
to decorate the ground
Villa d'Este in Tivoli :
One of the famous gardens of the renaissance which is extremely complex in its spaces. The staircases
are much more lateral than perpendicular allowing us to move and return each time moving back and
forth to contemplate the entire landscape of the mountainous surrounding
It is known for its hundred fountains alley which is like a music of water along this pathway.

Bomarzo sacred grove

(Garden of Monsters):

Had been constructed in the renaissance however it is not in the renaissance style.

The owner of the land is called Bomarzo, he made his garden in the forest that’s why we have a problem
in drawing the plan of the garden because it is extremely complex to locate the different components.

It belongs to the mannerist style ( mannerism is the extension of the renaissance and it is and an
alienation of the renaissance style It is charactedrized by the lack of scale and the distortion of the
human figures. It tends to dislocate our understanding) In Bomarzo we can meet sculptures and objects
that are fearful or disturbing our consciousness. For example, in this slanted tower we feel like we are
falling. So mannerism as art expression has the purpose to distort our image of the cosmos even the
human figure are so small with respect to the sculpture. So mannerist gardens, especially this aims to
excite our imagination and sentiments toward those extremely spaces that are too much shocking,
inviting us to experience the space.
 French Renaissance Gardens

In one of his conquest Charles VIII, the French Prince had admired in Italy parks and Villas. He returns to
his castle of Amboise and invited to his court Italian artists such as Pacello da Mercogliano who is the
creator of the first Renaissance garden in France

Blois:

The early renaissance or the French renaissance garden has been in Blois.

In Blois, architects did not conceive the garden and the palace as one architectural concept; they neither
tried to integrate the garden in the architectural space. We can see in the entire configuration , three
trerraces probably the first one is the hortus conclusus, while the second one is much more developed
and extremely big and the other parts are left. In the second part, we can see the same components of
the renaissance gardens are adopted the multiplicity of the squares and the square is divided into
smaller squares, always surrounded by sheltered walkways and the entire space is punctuated each time
by some kind of tower like this one that is leading to the center of the garden

Fontainebleau Garden: Move from the renaissance to the baroque

We have three spaces here, one garden in front of the palace with the sculpture of the Diane and
another big garden next to the lake and an orchard on the other side.

So the concept of Francois the first that the garden should primarily start as an intimate space conceived
in relation to the castle and then garden should open to integrate the outer landscape.This is very avant
gard approach, having two approaches to the garden, one extremely intimate and the other one is
linked to the outer landscape

On the other side, the Francois 1er Gallery is opened towards a pond, where on the west is a garden of
pleasure with orchard and vegetable garden.

Water is essential elements for the French Baroque garden, water as canal, basin or pond are elements
that structure the whole garden.

This is Francois Gallery showing this play of light and shadow inside rococo style so it is forming this
boundary of articulation between the castle and the garden.

This garden was re-planned between 1661 and 1664 by André Le Notre, the creator of Versailles
gardens. ( Andre le notre is a very important landscape designer in the French period none for
designing gardens and his main creation is Versailles)

In Fountainebleu, andre planed topoiary to hide the irregularity of the castle building. He transformed
the canal to a huge basin to integrate the landscape to the garden.So when we look at the ground of the
garden we can see those conical shapes that are forming some kinf of rhythm counterbalancing the
irregularity of architecture.

In Fontainebleau it is the first time in France where the landscape is a visual experience perceived in the
promenade in the garden. In this way, the king can see in miniature a reproduction of his kingdom for
him to show the visitors the expense of his land and his power over this environment

With extreme regularity of the garden we have a poetic approach which is some sort of aesthetic
approach in the landscape that is left in small parts of the garden in fountain bleu and later on in
Versailles. Those are showing extremely poetic settings of intimate meeting.

Baroque Gardens in France:

With Louis XIV (1643-1715), the French garden became a real master pieces with Le Nôtre, its
importance had been extended outside France to reach the whole Europe.

The concept of Le Nôtre is based on a simple structure: a central axis divides the park into 2 parts; these
parts are also subdivided into individual compartments enclosing different motifs.

The lower garden is composed by two flowerbeds compositions and the center is a water element. • The
main axis leads to a circular water plane, which is the counterpart of a huge octagonal basin on the park
end
Vaux-le-vicomte park & Castle

The first and most important garden designed is Vaux-le-vicomte park & Castle

Vaux-le-Vicomte is a royal park. Louis Le Vau is the designer of the building. Decorations are of Charles
Le Brun. The main hall is topped by a dome which marks the main axis of the complex. • Le Notre starts
drawing his garden from this axe

He conceives a wide promenade leading to the horizon by climbing the soft slope of a hill situated on the
other side on the park. • This way, he succeeds creating a real depth for the visual perspective that he
emphasizes by the multiplicity of terraces.

Important note: whatever the morphology of the land is , the principle of le notre had to be
implemented or imprinted on the land and the design should be created with no respect to the
tpogography itself.In this way he succeeds in creating depth for the visual perspective that he
emphasized by multiplicity of the terraces.

In the axonometric we can see how there is a small sculpture, a small object it is the sculpture of
Hercules. It is not haphazard in mentioning personalities in the garden.This link to the garden had to
connect the owner of the space with mythical figure (Hercules representing power)

There is an extreme regularity in the fountain bleu garden, everything is calculated.He made an axis of
symmetry composing the entire garden to two equal parts divided by lateral axis creating compartables
each time using staircase to ascend the topography of the land but the geometry itself is going against
the topography.

• It is the first time that a garden is conceived to carry the vision as far. • The ground composition is
divided in two parts crossing a path that the intersection point with the main promenade is water
element with fountain. • Le Notre highlights the two first flower bed compositions by placing fountains
on each side recalling the main huge fountain. By this artifact, the vision is redirected to faraway. He
uses also the grove to emphasize this depth feeling, they're acting as frames.

• Vaux-le-Vicomte was for Le Notre an experimental field. He uses the different elements of the
European garden design such as: canal, water element, ramps. He succeeds by combining these
elements in interesting way.
The drawing of Sebatian Sergio were applied on the landscape design showing like its being sewed