Garden History – Renaissance Italy

For more garden history, we turn to the Renaissance gardens of Italy, which grew out of the rediscovery of ancient Roman ideals and knowledge after nearly 1000 years of the Dark Ages. Again I am using Christopher Thacker’s The History of Gardens for my reference, and Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Their Gardens. The Renaissance period is typically categorized in three main periods: early Renaissance (1400 – 1500), High Renaissance (1500 - 1525), and Late Renaissance or Mannerism (1520 – 1600).

According to Thacker, there are no surviving gardens of the early Renaissance period. Gardens from this transitional period were still influenced by the poverty and difficulties of the Medieval period. Written documents describe idealized gardens, rather than existing ones, but do show the ideas that would influence later garden design.

• On the Art of Building in Ten Books by Leone Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472) – describes garden design and use, drawing on architectural principles from the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (circa 80 – 15 BC), the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD), and magistrate Pliny the Younger (61 – 112 AD).
•  Strife of Love in a Dream by Poliphilo, published by the monk Francesco Colonna in 1499 – a romance describing the adventures of Poliphile looking for his love, Polia. Many of the scenes in the story were later translated into gardens, such as Boboli Gardens.

One Hundred Fountains at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy (near Rome).
Photographed by Adrian Pingstone in June 2007 and placed in the public domain.

Many fine examples of Italian Renaissance gardens from the later periods still exist in Italy today, and classic Renaissance gardens have inspired gardens around the world. The Renaissance garden is designed to complement the villa and its structures, and vice versa; incorporate classic ideas about form and proportion, including geometric elements and symmetry; take advantage of the natural site; incorporate distant views and borrowed scenery; and to be used for enjoyment, reflection, contemplation, and pleasure. It is both formal and inviting, incorporating unexpected elements, including water treatments, fountains, grottoes, views, and vistas. Later, in the High Renaissance, gardens were used to demonstrate power.