Renaissance garden

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The gardens of the Villa Medici of Castello near Florence, designed by Niccolò Tribolo
The reconstructed park of the Château de Villandry in France with its geometric ornamental and kitchen gardens
Gardens of the palace complex of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
The Hortus Palatinus ("Palatinate Garden") was the garden of the Heidelberg Castle . It was the most famous Renaissance garden in Germany and a model for similar gardens in other German residences.
Garden of the Schallaburg in Austria
The renaissance garden of the royal palace of Solliden in Sweden
Gardens of Egeskov Castle in Denmark
Reconstructed renaissance garden of the bishop's palace in Kielce, Poland
The elaborate water features of Hellbrunn`s Castle in Salzburg are from the period of the late Renaissance and early 17th century by Prince Archbishop were Markus Sittikus von Hohenems commissioned

As a Renaissance garden one is garden or park called, in the era and the style of the Renaissance was created. Since the first gardens of this type were created in Italy, they were and are sometimes also referred to as Italian gardens . The gardens laid out later in Germany, France or England differed significantly from the Italian originals.

Zeitgeist development

The basic form of the horticultural type known today as the Renaissance garden originated in Italy. Towards the end of the 15th century, a new view of life began to establish itself here, with a return to forms, values ​​and systems of thought of antiquity , which not only influenced the humanities, but also architecture and horticulture. The idea of humanism also led to a new understanding of gardens. Medieval restrictions did not apply; Castles, courtyards and extensive fortifications had had their day, palaces and villas were now being built. Nature was given a new status. Also - especially in Northern Italy - the representation needs of the enlightened, urban upper middle class should be taken into account, which increasingly created refuges for relaxation and reflection outside the cities.

Antiquity and humanism

The Renaissance was based on a turn to the literature and culture of classical antiquity , which often stood in opposition to the views of the late Middle Ages . Humanism was the "scientific-intellectual side" of the Renaissance movement. Humanists explained the ancient image of culture and man as a wish and a goal; the educated man was the educational goal of humanism.

Well-known representatives of the time appealed to ancient authorities such as Vitruvius or Ovid when designing living spaces ; places for the revival of antiquity should be created. The literary models used for the design should evoke the idea of ​​an idyllic place, the Golden Age , the gardens of the Hesperides , the nymphs and the muses or the Elysian fields of Homer and Virgil . Roman gardens such as those of Lucius Licinius Lucullus on the Pincio and that of Gaius Maecenas on the Esquiline , the Horti Sallustiani of the writer Sallust , the gardens of Julius Caesar in Trastevere , the imperial gardens on the Palatine and above all the gardens of the Domus Aurea des Nero (which, according to Suetons De vita Caesarum, extended over a hundred hectares and included meadows, arable land, vineyards, orchards and artificial lakes) were handed down through detailed literary descriptions and served as a model. The design language was shaped by the revived Greek and Roman antiquity - above all through an orderly evenness - as well as the use of stairs, sculptures and water features.

nature

With their concepts, the master builders of the Renaissance strived for a balance between architecture and nature. The Renaissance garden is now referred to as the "third nature" - in contrast to the first (untouched) and second (cultivated) nature:

“The concept of a third nature means the creation of a third state, a kind of art-nature or nature-art. [...] Only when art and nature profile each other, imitate each other, only then does the inwardly fixed gaze go over the walls, to the earth, to the axes in the horizontal "

- Marianne Klenum after John Dixon Hunt

The garden was supposed to be an aesthetic image of the countryside (ruris imitatio) in contrast to the bustle of the city, in which the allegorically understood nature had produced artificial formations. Nature experienced a re-evaluation, it became the projection surface for a newly experienced happiness in life. It was about the connection or the competition between art and nature:

“If you look at an ideal Renaissance garden, you see a room in which architecture, art, nature and landscape form a harmonious whole in order to give people the ideal space for their development: to linger, to read, for art, for love for philosophical conversation, for relaxation, for being or becoming yourself. This is an idea of ​​paradise that is expanded to include the idea of ​​man in paradise - a deeply humanistic and at the same time deeply religious idea. "

- Hans von Trotha , 2012

Since Francesco Petrarca , the ideal of a country villa and garden as a refuge has spread in Italy.

Christianity

The great importance of the church at that time led to a connection between Christian ideals and the ideas of antiquity in the development of garden structures: from the limited garden spaces ( hortus conclusus ) of the medieval cult of Mary to the open garden of Eden . According to Ulisse Aldrovandi, in a Paradiso terrestre “mind and soul would be free from lower instincts”. Pioneering was the text Convivium religiosum published by Erasmus von Rotterdam in 1522 , in which he describes the transition from the hortus conclusus of the monastic character to the Renaissance garden of the Christian character. The basic attitude is optimistic: The spiritualization of the world in Renaissance humanism always also expresses world affirmation.

However, Arab horticultural traditions also flowed into the design, also often in a Christian interpretation - such as the cascades (salsabil) that are not tied to stairs , even if their origin may again have been in ancient Rome.

Geometry and interrelationships

First of all, the use of structures of the classical order (perspective, proportion, symmetry, circles, squares and triangles) was an expression of the focus on antiquity. Garden architects tried to expand geometric structures (a symbol of cosmic order) discovered in nature to larger units. Because of the resulting repertoire of forms and the pruning of plants, the Renaissance garden is included in the group of geometric gardens. The interrelationship between outside space and building was recognized, and builders and gardeners tried to merge them into a single unit.

“In 1485, the theorist Leon Battista Alberti first called for the garden to be related to architecture, the villa and the visual arts, such as garden sculpture. Its regular floor plan should follow architectural patterns, the garden should have a central central axis and develop perspective lines of flight, which indicates the influence of the central perspective in painting. "

In 1452 he had dedicated the text De re aedificatoria (roughly: "to architecture") to Pope Nicholas V. Alberti, for his part, referred to statements by Pliny the Younger on the gardens of ancient Rome. Alberti had included this in his demands on the location, location, equipment and layout of villas. The following applied to palace and horticulture:

"The architect must precisely maintain the sense of good proportions and regularity, so that the pleasant balance of the whole is not lost over the charm of individual parts."

- Leon Battista Alberti, 1452

The allegorical novel Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by Francesco Colonna , published in 1499, developed into the bible of garden art of the Renaissance . The island on which the hero Poliphilus lands is a huge garden, the beauty of which is described in detail - here the opulence of nature unites with the elegance of geometric shapes. Many of the great garden creators of the Italian Renaissance invoked the garden concepts presented in the novel.

Landscape structures

In Italy, the first Renaissance gardens were created for existing city castles or for newly built country villas. In the former, some older fortress structures were rededicated. The corresponding spatial conditions provided the framework for the new gardens. Country villas were mainly built on slopes, the garden had to be laid out in the form of a terrace due to the natural conditions . That met the ideas of the garden planners because they could bring in perspectives, axes, masonry and, above all, water features. City gardens therefore also tried to incorporate terrace shapes - which was not always possible. The Giardini segreti were the smallest garden units in cities .

Design elements

The characteristics of Renaissance gardens differed in the Italian, French and German-speaking areas. This was mainly due to the fact that in Italy mostly new facilities were built in previously undeveloped rural areas, in France and Germany gardens were often laid out at existing palaces and castles, so that existing leeway (mostly former fortifications) was used. The different requirements of the clients also played a role. While in France they usually belonged to the higher nobility , in Italy the wealthy patriciate played a stronger role. Of course, the climatic conditions also decided on the design options. Nevertheless, the gardens of the time contain some generally applicable stylistic elements:

Basic structures

Stone boundary walls were taken over from medieval horticulture. Axes (e.g. avenues, paths, canals or arcades), taking into account the building's location and architecture, were introduced as a further, superordinate and perspective structuring element. For the most part, the entire complex consisted of differently designed and used, large-scale garden areas ( pleasure and kitchen gardens ), which were designed in their interaction and in connection with the surrounding nature. The individual districts, in the classic Renaissance garden up to four ( All'italiana- Parterre ) roughly equal rectangles, which in turn have strongly basic geometric shapes (such as squares, rectangles, diagonals, circles), were often closed off by galleries with corner pavilions. A typical element of the Italian Renaissance garden was the grotto, a secret, mysterious place that symbolized the transition to the underworld.

Popular forms of planting were node parterres, borders , hedges, the avenues already mentioned, and shade-giving pergolas or treillages . Accentuations by topiaria and (mostly boxwood ) ornamentation are striking . In some complex gardens (e.g. in the designs by Sebastiano Serlio ) elements from the later popular labyrinths can already be found.

In addition to the tulips that were mainly used, onion plants that were frequently used were also hyacinths , lilies and various types of iris . Especially in Italy, plants were often placed in terracotta pots because of the irregular rainfall .

Terraces

Depending on the size and nature of the property, terrace steps connected by stairs were created. The Italian villa culture spread on the climatically favored slopes of the mountains in Lazio, Tuscany and Liguria . Plains were considered unhealthy because of the widespread malaria. Even in the Venetian Terraferma, the only villegiatura in Italy that developed in a decidedly low plain, the early villas were located on the few hills of the region. The terrace structure made it possible to create elaborate staircases or belvederes .

Water features

In view of the hot Italian summers, springs and natural watercourses were a prerequisite for the creation of the gardens. It was not just about irrigation, many of the large Renaissance gardens gained national fame for their water features ( Giochi d'acqua , also known as water art ). The water themes were also an expression of a romantic closeness to nature. In the development of the Renaissance garden up to Mannerism , the water features became more and more elaborate; In addition to water basins and flooded grottos, there were also fountains, cascades , water stairs or so-called water jokes (including joke fountains that spray garden visitors when they step on a certain floor slab), which surprised the viewer with unexpected effects. Examples of great water features were the cascades of the Villa d'Este or the Neptune Fountain in the Boboli Gardens near Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Other elements

In the garden of the late Renaissance and Mannerism there were deliberate violations of the rule of harmonious design, e.g. B. in intentionally crooked buildings ( Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo), or the use of oversized masks in the garden of the Giusti Palace near Verona .

Delimitation to the baroque garden

The magnificent baroque garden was a further development and enhancement of the cheerful renaissance garden. Both are part of an idea that they represent as a total work of art. Geometry is the bracket that connects stone and plant as materials. If the renaissance garden served more for the intimacy of private staging and seclusion, the baroque garden was used as a representative, public space with a clear message to which all elements were subordinate. Accordingly, the renaissance garden was still a loose amalgamation of individual, but coherent, adjacent garden spaces. In contrast, the baroque garden was a well-composed and centralized overall complex. If nature in the Renaissance garden was brought into the garden as an expression of the new humanism, it had to submit to rationalist structures in the baroque view. The old garden type was used for concentration, the new one for expansion.

In contrast to the Renaissance garden, the baroque park had no culture of high terraces or belvederes and staged stairs, but a lot of sculptural decorations . Individual elements such as grottos, cabinets or pleasure houses, however, were adopted. Brick architecture was replaced by an architecture of plants. The baroque garden relied on standing rather than running water. Knot parterres have been replaced by broderie parterres . The dominant element of the staging was the visual axis . All flower arrangements and horticultural design elements had to be subordinate to the overall ensemble. In its perfection, the baroque garden was an expression of royal absolutism and thus contradicted the ideals of the Renaissance. In the Baroque garden, garden art was also equated with other genres for the first time.

Important renaissance gardens

Original (pure) gardens of the Renaissance are no longer available today. There are rebuilt plants and those that have been preserved in the outline of their construction. Walls, stairs, terraces, fountains, grottos and also sculptures can be original. However, opinions differ on the planting of these gardens. Gardens are naturally ephemeral; Plants and the structures formed from them grow and disappear. Garden architecture is constantly evolving, gardens are being reshaped; The Renaissance gardens , which were widespread at the time, survived the subsequent epochs of the baroque garden as well as the English landscape garden .

At the beginning of the 16th century, a garden was laid out on the grounds of today's Belvedere ( Cortile del Belvedere ) and the Vatican Apostolic Library , which is now considered the first typical Renaissance garden. Its creation and design are well documented. It was designed in 1503 by Donato Bramante on behalf of Pope Julius II . Bramante used the named font by Leon Battista Alberti . Even if the garden in the Vatican did not last long, Bramante's new design language was trend-setting. A major architect of the Renaissance gardens in France was Jean Androuet du Cerceau . The first French Renaissance garden was built around 1500 at the royal Amboise Castle .

Probably the most famous Italian garden of the Renaissance was at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli. The reconstructed park in Villandry is the only surviving Renaissance garden in France. In Germany, the reconstruction of the renaissance garden of Heidelberg Castle ( Hortus Palatinus , today in the style of an English landscape garden) with its five terrace steps , was praised as the “eighth wonder of the world” . The renaissance garden of Schloss Berg in Saarland is an attraction. In Neufra 1988, the "Hanging Gardens of Neufra" have been restored of the local castle. The Bishop's Palace in Kielce received a reconstructed Renaissance garden on its west side in 2003.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Caroline Rolka, Historical Small Architectures in Saxony: An Investigation of Building Construction and the Use of Materials in Gardening and Landscaping , ISBN 978-3-86596-134-1 , Frank & Timme, Berlin 2007, p. 46
  2. a b Ralf Janaszek, Glossary on Garden and Landscape Architecture , accessed on January 31, 2015
  3. a b Maja Eib, Humanism and its influence on the understanding of marriage in the 15th century: a philosophical-moral-theological investigation with special consideration of the early humanistic ideas of Albrecht von Eyb , Volume 9 of the studies of moral theology , ISBN 3-825-85302-0 , LIT Verlag Münster, 2001, p. 3 ff.
  4. ^ Géza Hajós, Historical Gardens in Austria: Forgotten Gesamtkunstwerke , Österr. Society for historical gardens, ISBN 3-205-98095-6 , Böhlau Verlag Wien, 1993, p. 4
  5. ^ A b Marta Zaccagnini, Christianity of Finiteness: Heidegger's Lectures Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion , Volume 4, Forum Religionsphilosophie , ISBN 3-825-86476-6 , LIT Verlag Münster, 2003, pp. 115f.
  6. ^ A b Elmar Treptow, The sublime nature: Design of an ecological aesthetic , ISBN 3-826-01938-5 , Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2001, p. 176
  7. ^ Marianne Klemun, Gardens of the Estates: Marginal spaces as a signature of culture and politics. In: Natascha N. Hoefer, Anna Ananieva, The Other Garden: Remembering and Inventing in Institutional Gardens , Volume 22, Forms of Memory, ISBN 3-525-35582-3 , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 188
  8. Christian Patzl, The Gardens of Gurk Monastery: Renaissance of a Renaissance Garden , diploma thesis, ISBN 3-83244-093-3 , diplom.de, p. 45
  9. a b c d Hans von Trotha : Garden art: In search of the lost paradise . ISBN 3-838-72054-7 , Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 2012
  10. ^ A b Gardens of the Renaissance , The J. Paul Getty Museum , in English, accessed January 31, 2015
  11. Referring to the Villa Carpi and a cave complex in the garden of the del Bufalos that he admired
  12. Jan Peter Grevel, With God in the Green: A Practical Theology of Nature Experience , ISBN 3-525-60451-3 , habilitation thesis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Frankfurt (Main) 2014, p. 161
  13. ^ Andreas Greuter and Frank Maier-Solgk, Renaissance Gardens in Italy: Paradises of Stone and Nature , Edition 635 of the Bibliophile Pocket Books , Harenburg Edition, 1991, p. 46
  14. Heike Juliane Zech, Cascades in German Garden Art of the 18th Century: From Architectural Fountains to Nature-Imitating Waterfalls , Volume 7, Architecture , ISBN 3-643-90045-7 , LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, p. 30
  15. ^ Italian Renaissance Garden at Hamilton Gardens , accessed January 31, 2015
  16. Italian Renaissance Garden on burgdaten.de
  17. Hansjörg Küster, History of the Landscape in Central Europe: From the Ice Age to the Present , ISBN 3-406-60849-3 , CH Beck, Munich 2010
  18. Harald exchange, "Architecture is the dark side of art": fictitious architectures and gardens in German literature between the early Enlightenment and Romanticism , Volume 34, Foundation for Research romance , ISBN 3-826-03209-8 , King & Neumann, Würzburg 2006 P. 47f.
  19. ^ Karl Schröder, Studies on Renaissance Gardens in Upper Germany , 1912, at Lexikus.de , accessed on February 1, 2015
  20. ^ Günter Mader, History of garden art: Forays through four millennia , ISBN 3-800-14868-4 , Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2006, p. 82
  21. Günter Oesterle and Harald Tausch, The garden: For an introduction. In: Wolfram Martini (Ed.), Architecture and Memory: Forms of Memory , Small Series V & R, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-35420-7
  22. Wilfried Hansmann, Marianne Bongartz, The Loire Valley: Castles, Churches and Cities in the "Garden of France" , DuMont Art Travel Guide, ISBN 3-770-16614-0 , DuMont Reiseverlag, 2006, p. 170
  23. Ira Mazzoni, Das eighth Weltwunder , Zeit Online, December 5, 2007, accessed January 31, 2015
  24. ^ Nicole Heß, Travel Guide Mosel, DuMont Reise-Taschenbücher Travel Guide , ISBN 3-770-17370-8 , DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2014, p. 115
  25. Kielce on the official Polish tourism portal, accessed on January 31, 2015

Web links

Commons : Renaissance Garden  - collection of images, videos and audio files