SECTION 1 Ancient Egyptian Gardens SECTION 2 Chinese Gardens SECTION 3 Italian Mannerist Gardens SECTION 4 Park Guell, Barcelona SECTION 5 Australian Colonial Gardens REFERNECE LIST
HISTORY OF DESIGNED LANDSCAPES SKETCHBOOK Fiona Davidson 537895
SECTION ONE Ancient Egyptian Gardens The Egyptians built their civilization on the edge of the Valley of the Nile. The surrounding desert was hostile to invaders so the Egyptian society was able to flourish in stability and relative peace. Law and religion developed and endured over nine periods from 2920BC TO 395AD. Once a year from July to September the flooding of the Nile would fertilize its adjacent valley providing arable farming land and irrigation. This facilitated transport and also created a summer period where activities other than agriculture could be pursued. Leading to the development of gardens and monumental architecture. The ancient gardens temporal nature has ensured that none remain today. Knowledge of Egyptian gardens thus comes from tombs, archeological investigations and texts. The oldest records of designed gardens date from c. 2000 BC. Historians have identified five distinct types of Egyptian gardens, all with different purposes and designs (Turner 2005); Fruit and vegetable gardens, Small domestic gardens, Palace gardens, Temple and tomb gardens, Plant and animal gardens.
Sennufer’s garden scene from a tomb at Thebes c.1400 B.C The painting is thought to depict a part of the Karnak temple complex, of which Sennufer was the garden designer. However some historians contest that it is Sennufer’s private residence (Turner 2005). Depicts a 3-roomed house sitting within a symmetrical garden that is laid out per pendicular to the river. Visitors could arrive by boat. The entire garden is surrounded by a high wall and divided into sections by lower walls of dry stone or baked mud (Jellicoe 1975). These walls divide the space into several ‘garden rooms’. Date palms, sycamore trees and pomegranate trees were planted in certain areas and orders. While a large vineyard on four trellis is laid out in the center of the complex Four ponds filled with lotus plants, papyrus, ducks and fish are laid out symmetrically. Pools were a necessity and luxury. Functioned to irrigate plants and cool the air. Fish provided entertainment, food and eliminated the larvae of biting insects. The image shows the duality of the garden with decorative but functional use of plants such as vine trellis and pomegranate. Overall the painting depicts many similarities to modern courtyard gardens. With key structures (ponds, trellis) still widely in use today.
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SECTION ONE Egyptian Gardens
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‘Pond in a Garden’ from the Tomb of Nebamun c.1350 B.C Upper class residential inhabitants enjoyed domestic gardens which provided food and fruits and abatement from the harsh desert heat. Excavations of Egyptian grand homes show the remains of trees planted in orderly linear patterns leading to entrance points. Gardens were highly geometric and symmetrical. Nebamun was a ‘scribe and counter of grain’. The Painting depicts an ideal garden, destined for Nebamun in the afterlife. It is realistic of the gardens of wealthy Egyptians. A central pond is full of birds and fish. Borders of flowers and shady trees surround it. The fruit trees are sycamore figs, date palms and dom palms. Detail in the painting shows dates at different degrees of ripeness.
In the palaces of the Pharaohs large gardens were constructed on axis with pavements, sunken gardens, shading and large ponds. Animals with symbolic significance were kept in temple and palace gardens. Live lions were kept in cages at the entrance to the gardens at Karnak. From ancient texts and archaeological evidence, these gardens were often designed to mimic nature and the natural landscape of the Nile and were dedicated to certain gods. Describing the garden in his mortuary temple Ramses the 3rd states “I dug a lake before it, flooded with Nun, planted trees and vegetation like the Delta”. He goes on to say that, “It was surrounded with gardens and arbor filled with fruit and flowers for the two serpent-goddesses” (Badawy 1968). Ramses the 3rd also made the ancient city of Thebes a garden city by planting trees and papyrus plants. In the urban center vineyards were planted and walkways of shaded fruit trees with planted flowers were said to have been constructed (Rogers 2001).
SECTION TWO Chniese Gardens Traditionally in China the garden was viewed as an evolution of the home, a place where the entire family could live. Gardens were designed around the Taoist principles of harmony with nature. Peacefulness and tranquility was of the utmost importance, as the garden became a place wherein to find recreation in the arts, meditate and learn. Chinese landscape design reached its climax with the Summer Palaces of Peking at the same time as Versailles (Jellicoe 1975). Around this time landscape gardening became a pursuit of art. Poets, painters and men of letters were among the notable landscape architects during the Ming and Quing dynasties (Cai 2011). The first complete (Western) description of a Chinese garden was published in Paris, 1749 in a letter by the Jesuit Father Attiret. He described how clear streams wound through gentle valleys. On the slopes plum and willow trees grew in profusion and through them paths meandered with the lie of the land ornamented all along with little pavilions and grottos. Streams were edged with different pieces of rock. At the time this description would have been in stark contrast to the avenues and geometry of Baroque French, Italian and British garden design. It contrasts against the formal patterns of the west that brought order and symmetry to nature. ‘Half of heaven, half of man’ T’ung Chuin. The Chinese designed landscape was incredibly man made however its endeavor lay in concealing, completely any signs of the artificial. The first step to creating the garden was finding the optimal possibilities inherent in a site (Morris 1983). Sir William temple published The Gardens of Epicurus (1687) wherein he praised Chinese gardens for their intricate irregularity, giving the name ‘Sharawadgi’ to those parts ‘where the beauty shall be great, but without any order’ (Jellicoe 1975).
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SECTION TWO Chniese Gardens
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Key Features of Chinese Landscape architecture; Pagoda (t’a): Derived from the Indian Stupa was used as an observation point and to accentuate landforms. Overtime the pagoda form has become part of the Chinese landscape. Yuan Yeh: Pavilion for shelter, meditation and rest. Came in many shapes. Lang: Arcade, covered walk between pavilions and apartments. Would rise over rockeries and float around lakesides. Paving: A key difference between Chinese and Western gardens is the use of grass. There are no sloping lawns in Chinese gardens. Traditionally in Chinese gardens, courtyards are paved (Morris 1983). This is thought to be because soft grasses waving in the breeze evoked for the Chinese the grassland of the northern steppes and thus by association, the incessant raids made upon the frontiers by ferocious nomads and Mongols (Keswick). Paths often comprised of pebble mosaics in patterns that change according to the function of the surroundings. They define different spaces and emphasize alterations in mood Gardens are orchestrated to celebrate four seasons because the country experiences distinct fluctuations in climate (Morris 1983).
TRADITIONAL PEBBLE MOSAIC PATH DEPICTING SWALLOWS.
Bridges and gazebos in which people could rest Staggered perspectives Rockery: used to convey the feeling of the mountains and to bring that theme into the mini-world of the garden. Their textures provided a source of visual delight.
CHINESE LILLY
CRYSANTHEMUM FLOWER
SECTION TWO Chniese Gardens Chengde Summer Palace, Mountain Resort. Construction 1703-1790 The Chengde Summer Palace is located northeast of Beijing beyond the Great Wall. The palace began construction in the Qing Dynasty by Emperor Kangxi. It was built for the purpose of strengthening ties with Mongolia and providing the Imperial family a temperate estate to escape to during the scorching summer. Total area 5.6 square km: Lakes 496000m2, Plains 607000m2, and Hills 4435000m2 The gardens of the palace are divided into three distinct areas of lakes, plains and hills, representing the sceneries of northern and southern China. The scenery around the lake resembles Jiangnan’s lakes and river region, the plain is reminiscent of the open plain region beyond the Great Wall, and the mountainous scenery is a replica of the mountains in the north. These elements were skillfully designed to resemble real places, recognizable to the Chinese populace (Cai 2011). Matteo Ripa, an Italian missionary who worked as an artist at the Qing imperial court observed that certain sections and elements of the gardens, such as their wooded hillsides were designed for physical activities such as hunting game while others were purely ornamental or reserved for relaxation. The design of the gardens is a culmination of all the variety of gardens, pagodas and temples from around china at the time. It features Mongolian and Tibetan style temples amongst traditional Chinese styles.
One of the 36 favourite views of Chengde, of the Kangxi Emperor , 1713
This view of the gardens consists of a lake or river, and hills; in the foreground centre right, a building complex, including courtyard buildings and a pagoda, set among graduated rock formations, on a promontory which is walled at the front, the wall interrupted by steps leading to the water and an arched opening; rocky landscape in the distance.
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SECTION THREE Italian Renaissance: Mannerist Gardens
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In the second half of the 16th century Renaissance art was thought to have reached its zenith. Mannerism was a specific style which evolved over six decades, between the High Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was originally a derogatory term for artists who, lacking personal greatness, worked in the manner of the great masters before them (Turner 2005). However now it is viewed with praise, in describing when artists drifted away from the serious classical ideals of perfection and explored novelty, allusion and surprise in design. Mannerist art and architecture can be classified by a sense of restless energy, imagination, movement and drama. This contrasts against the preceding seriousness of High Renaissance art and the subsequent rationalist and scientifically led Baroque. During the period of transition romantic artificialities such as rocks, grottos, giants and secret fountains were often incorporated in a ground design that continued the basic geometry of the renaissance (Rogers 2001). They represented the struggles of mannerism to escape from the classical frame. New interests in classical literature inspired allegorical garden designs and fantastical and grotesque scenes. Mannerism marks the intellectualization of gardens and extreme artifice of the renaissance.
MERMAID, SACRO BOSCO
Sacro Bosco, Vil a Orsini (1552-1584) by Vicino Orsini The garden of Sacro Bosco developed as an itinerary of personal history for Count Vicino Orsini. The park was created at a time of struggle between Christians and pagans. It used mythology to explore the paradoxical relationships between life, death, man, religion and nature, which were brought to the fore because of these conflicts and other events in Orsini’s life. The name ‘Sacro Bosco’ means ‘sacred wood’ and derives its meaning from the ancient world, particularly texts such as Homer’s Odyssey (Turner 2001). The macabre garden is the exclusive product of Mannerism (Jellicoe). Primitive giants populate the landscape, and architecture is thrown askew (quite literally, with leaning buildings and fake ruins jutting out of the ground). Symbolic and allegorical associations can be found in the history of the sculptures and their forms. It also is a domain of allusions with forms representing various literary themes from texts such as Dantes Inferno and Virgil’s Aeneid. This is evident as the Hell mouth, representing the entrance to the underworld bears an inscription from Dantes Inferno stating; “Cast away every thought, you who enter here’. Within the garden there is a manipulation of scale and perspective to create an itinerary of unusual scenes studded with bizarre sculpture and architectural monuments, each serving as a riddle to be deciphered by visitors (Rogers 2001). The garden has a distinct lack of geometric plan. This is in part due to its design by several different architects over time. The monsters were carved from natural boulders at the site, explaining their inconsistencies in size. The arcane climax of humanism in garden design (Rogers 2001) is evidenced in sculptures such as the winged Harpie/Mermaid. It is based on a classical Greek text.
HELLS MOUTH, SACRO BOSCO
SECTION THREE Italian Renaissance Mannerist Gardens
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Vil a d’Este (1549), by Pirro Ligorio for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este of Ferrara ‘If we drew up a list of seven wonders of the gardening world, this villa might well rank as the first’ Jellico 1937 (Turner 2005) Teeming with drama, water theatre, fountains, statues and icons, the transition between High Renaissance and Baroque is nowhere more evident than at the garden of Villa d’Este. Based on a renaissance plan, the garden is arranged on intersecting axes, with smaller avenues pushing outwards against its boundaries (Turner 2005). Visitors entered the garden at its lowest point, as they ascended the hill the tale of the d’Este family history, which is linked to the tale of Hercules and is told through waterworks and sculpture. Many of the statues were obtained from Roman sites. Separate parts of the garden are meant to be experienced sequentially. Turner (2005) states that one would arrive at the top believing the d’Este family to be the most brilliant in history.
- Terraces: create a sense of domination over the landscape, cutting into the pre-existing slope. - Automata (Italian and French renaissance): A form of engineering using hydraulics to create animated experiences. Associated with grottos, animated objects, speaking statues and water organs
The relationship between art and nature constitutes the principle theme of the gardens iconography (Rogers 2001) This is evident in the; - Fountain of nature; water organ which played as water pressure was manipulated to release air in its pipes. Dedicated to the god Apollo - Terrace of 100 fountains. The terrace is composed of three conduits, which represent the three tributaries of the Tiber river which flows towards Rome (Rogers 2001). The fountain is interposed with Roman eagle statuettes and Egyptian obelisks. - The water displays and hydraulics were created by Orazio Olivieri (Newton 1971). The Aniene River was diverted to form the source of water for the fountains and water works. The water features are powered by gravity, the pressure of the water flowing down the hill. - Grottos: A fundamental feature of the renaissance garden. An ornamental and rustically designed cave. Often with automata and water organs, giving visual representation to the mythical origins of water subsequently used elsewhere in the garden (Strong 1979).
GROTTO OF DIANA The garden is highly allegorical; visitors are repeatedly asked to choose a path of virtue or vice. For example, at one avenue, visitors can choose to continue either via the grotto of Diana or the Grotto of Pan. Diana the mother goddess represents the quest for knowledge and virtue while Pan represents vice.
SECTION FOUR Parc Guell, Barcelona Catalan industrialist Eusebi Guell (1846-1918) commissioned architect Anotnio Gaudi (1852-1926) to design a housing estate in the hills overlooking Barcelona. Park Guell was originally intended as a suburban alternative to the increasingly crowded city. Inspired by the work of Ebenezer Howard and the English Garden city movement, it would allow middle class Barcelonans to escape the city’s growing pollution and congestion. Construction ensued between 1900 and 1914. The parks creation occurred within the period of Renaixenca, the renascence of Catalan traditions. There was an impulse to regain ‘regional soul’ by revalidating old traditions and vernacular idioms of architecture, religion and ornament, significant to the Catalan culture. The construction and design of the park thus uses many traditional Catalan building techniques and styles. It also has religious elements encoded into its architectural fabric. The use of natural forms and flowing lines also lends it to be categorized as an example of Art Nouveau and Modernista design (Turner 2005).
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PLANTERS VIADUCT
DRECERAS
MUSEUM VIADUCT
Bad building regulations and other problems led to the unsalability of lots in Park Guell. It became a residence for Guell and Gaudi however it never fulfilled its design of becoming a housing estate. After Eusebi Guell’s death, in 1923 the Guell family gave the property to the municipality of Barcelona to administer it as a public park. Gaudi intended to substantiate creationism through a biomorphic and geomorphic architectural imagery expressive of the prebiblical, prehistoric landscape (Rogers 2001).
SERPENTINE BENCH
The garden has adapted to the steep natural topography. The Park consists of gently inclined principle avenues, connector paths for pedestrians and dreceras (narrow paths) with steps to facilitate climbing steep areas (Rogers 2001). The roads loop broadly as they go up the slope. Where structural support was needed, the undersides of the bridges are dramatically vaulted porticos with organic, rough masonry. They appear as cave-like chambers. Support columns were built using traditional Catalan boveda tabicada style. The fluid parabolic interior of the porticos appears geological rather than architectonic.. Spiritual design of the paths and roads & allegorical significance. The highest point of the park is a stone cairn surmounted by three stone crosses symbolizing the hill of Jesus’ crucifixion. Paths wind up to this point, the climb intended to be symbolic of a spiritual pilgrimage (Rogers 2001).
GATEHOUSES CAROBS VIADUCT
STONE CAIRN / HIGHEST POINT
SECTION FOUR Parc Guell, Barcelona
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The viaducts, despite seeming grotto-like and ornamental provide shelter, seating and shade. They provide a sense of drama. They were designed to be able to pass carriages through. The Carob’s viaduct is designed in the Baroque style while the Planters viaduct is Romanesque in style. The Museum viaduct is Gothic with more ornate ceilings.
Details in the garden such as a salamander sculpture and Iron fan palm inspired gates (below) evoke Gaudi’s biomorphic, art nouveau style.
Serpentine bench c. 1909. Surrounds the perimeter of the Greek theater. Gently undulating, biomorphic balcony that provides a continuous seat. Covered in bold, mosaic that contains numerous liturgically symbolic colors and emblems. Symbolizes the serpent in Christian and Greek mythology. The mosaic is trencadis; a traditional Catalan mosaic technique using old pottery.
SECTION FIVE Colonial Gardens In Australia Camden Park, Camden NSW c. 1820 The designed landscape of Australia in the 19th C was not overseen by landscape architects, but by members of multiple occupations including; surveyors, engineers, curators, park superintendents, landscape gardeners and garden architects (Saniga, 2012). There is evidence of correspondence between Australian and European gardeners including Loudon and Repton (Saniga, 2012). Early colonial garden design was imbued with the wealthy pastoralist family’s who created grand gardens to match their wealth, aspirations and large homesteads. Camden Park, the estate of the Macarthur family typifies this idea. William Macarthur, a pastoralist, horticulturalist and vigneron started the garden in 1820. The garden at Camden Park is significant for its demonstration of the early nineteenth century estate garden design, including the following: The gardens and landscape are a combination of the colonial picturesque - which in the Cowpastures area of Camden had an Arcadian quality - and the Gardenesque. The term Gardenesque described a style, which did not seek to emulate nature, rather juxtaposing specimens of plants from different regions in non-natural combinations. John Claudius Loudon coined the term in 1832 (Aitken, 2012). The use of a hill site, and plantings to frame and take advantage of the views. Vistas from the house stretch out to nearby Mount Annan, Mount Gilead, the church spire of St John’s at Camden, and the family mausoleum. The location of St Johns was carefully surveyed by Sir Thomas Mitchell; from the house carriage loop the spire is symmetrically framed by the distant Mountains Hunter and Taurus, earning the church the local quip ‘built to the glory of God and to enhance the view of the MacArthur’s (Mills, 2012). English botanical artist and great traveller Marianne North commented on her visit to Camden Park in 1880-1 that: “The veranda which ran round the house was one mass of blooming blue wisteria; close by were great jubaea-palms from Chili: a monster I had never seen before. There were quantities of Japanese and Chinese plants, and quite a grove of camellias in full bloom, strawberries with ripe fruit, lemons, bananas, apples, figs, olives, every variety of climating contributing to fill that garden. There were acres of bulbs and different herbaceous plants scattered about the park in different directions by themselves in unexpected places…” (Mills, 2012)
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SECTION FIVE Colonial Gardens In Australia
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The planting of trees with ornamental form, also serves to demonstrate the influence of the early nineteenth century horticultural movement. William MacArthur imported plants from all over the world, mostly on a barter system. He would send Wardian cases filled with Australian native plants to various botanical gardens around the world in exchange for exotic plants he had requested. In the remnants of the orchard is Australia’s oldest-surviving apple tree, a Gravenstein planted in 1837 by William Macarthur along with some English magnolias. Also on the property is Australia’s oldest oak tree grown from an acorn given to John Macarthur at Buckingham Palace (Mills, 2012). One nationally rare feature of the landscaping is a palo blanco tree (Picconia excelsa) a relative of the olive, from the Canary Islands - a large tree growing at the east of the house. This species is rarely found in NSW and endangered in its natural habitat, the ‘laurisilva’ cloud forests of the Canary Islands (Mills, 2012).
The Clivia Walk Clivia are herbaceous evergreen plants, with green, strap-like leaves. Individual flowers are bell-shaped, occurring in umbels on a stalk above the foliage; colors typically range from yellow through orange to red. Specimens native to Southern Africa were collected by the British explorers William Burchell and John Bowie in 1815 and 1820 (Aan Martens Growers, 2006). The clivia at Camden Park were included in a consignment of plants sent from Kew by John Bidwill in November 1843, and listed in the garden records in 1845 (Mills 2012).
The Mausoleum On a hill directly facing the front of the house is the family mausoleum where John and Elizabeth Macarthur and most of their children are buried; a painting by Conrad Martens in the house collection depicts the structure. Members of the family in the direct line are still buried here. The graveyard is an example of colonial Arcadian landscaping, with exotic Chinese elms dominating the planting.
REFERENCE LIST
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SECTION 1 Ancient Egyptian Gardens Badawy, A 1968, A History of Egyptian Architecture: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Old Kingdom, University of Michigan, Michigan. Jellicoe, G & S 1975, The Landscape of Man Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day, Thames and Hudson LTD., London. Rogers, E 2001, Landscape Design; A Cultural and Architectural History, Harry N Abrams Inc., New York. Turner, T 2005, Garden History: Philosophy and Design 2000BC to 2000AD, Spoon Press, New York.
SECTION 2 Chinese Gardens Cai, Y 2011, Chinese Architecture, Cambridge University Press. Jellicoe, G & S 1975, The Landscape of Man Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day, Thames and Hudson LTD., London. Morris, E 1983, The Gardens of China, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
SECTION 3 Italian Mannerist Gardens Newton, N 1971, Design on the land: the development of landscape architecture, Belknap Press Harvard University, America. Rogers, E 2001, Landscape Design; A Cultural and Architectural History, Harry N Abrams Inc., New York. Strong, R 1979, The Renaissance garden in England, Thames and Hudson, London. Turner, T 2005, Garden History: Philosophy and Design 2000BC to 2000AD, Spoon Press, New York.
SECTION 4 Park Guell, Barcelona Rogers, E 2001, Landscape Design; A Cultural and Architectural History, Harry N Abrams Inc., New York. Turner, T 2005, Garden History: Philosophy and Design 2000BC to 2000AD, Spoon Press, New York.
SECTION 5 Australian Colonial Gardens Mills, C 2012, A brief history of the Camden Park Gardens, Hortus Camdenensis, viewed 24th November 2013, < http://hortuscamden.com/essays/view/a-brief-history-of-the-camden-park-gardens> San Marcos Growers 2001, California, viewed 24th November 2013, <http://www.sanmarcosgrowers.com/info/clivia.asp> Saniga, A 2012, Making Landscape Architecture in Australia, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney