Renaissance Gardens

Meanwhile, in 15th and 16th century Italy, , something revolutionary was going on that changed the way people saw themselves and affected every part of life. We call it ‘The Renaissance’ (meaning ‘Rebirth’). It was a feeling that, with new discoveries and developments in science, the arts and politics, the world was moving away from the traditional medieval way of seeing things. It was a way of looking at life with ‘Man’ (l’uomo universale) as the central focus, as had the Greeks and Romans. This can be called ‘Humanism’. It opened up all sorts of possibilities, and can be seen very clearly in the way paintings and sculpture changed during that time.

• Italian Renaissance
• French Renaissance
• English Renaissance

Italian Renaissance Gardens

Italy had been at the heart of Roman and Greek civilisation and now people were inspired to re- examine the remains of classical buildings and statues that lay all around. They got their new ideas for the layout and design of gardens from the ‘Villa Urbana’ (Roman town house and garden) and for their bigger park landscapes from the ‘Villa Rustica’ (Roman country estate). Instead of the Medieval idea of enclosed, protective and inward looking gardens, now they became open to the outside world.

The Villa Lante Gardens are the closest to this ideal. They have a balanced, symmetrical plan with:

• a formal garden with two casinos (summerhouses)
• water parterre.(a parterre is a level area in a garden usually with ornamental flower beds)
• an area of bosco (woodland) to balance the formal garden.
  
  

To reach the house you had to go through the gardens: buildings were just part of the greater garden plan. Then you climb through a series of garden rooms with views of the borrowed landscape (ie the surrounding countryside)

The Villa d’Este is another famous Italian Renaissance garden. Its lavish water gardens were one of the great wonders of the age.

As well as all the other great works of art for which he is known, Michelangelo was developing the idea of the piazza (city square). This was a place where the balanced use of space and shapes is just as important as in a garden of plants, pavilions, water and trees.

French Renaissance Gardens

In France, these garden ideas were taken onto another level of splendour. This was the time of the grandest and most powerful of French Kings, Louis XIV, known as Le Roi Soleil – the ‘Sun King’. Gardens became a way of demonstrating power and dominance over nature, and over other people. The most famous person connected with this garden style was Andre Le Nôtre. He skilfully used views, levels, fountains and reflections creating a unified, symmetrical vista, which impressed the spectator and reflected the power of the owner.

By far the most impressive garden of all was designed by Le Nôtre at the Palace of Versailles. Even now, its scale and magnificence is overwhelming; then its excess was beyond belief. All that could be seen belonged to the King, who almost seemed to have taken over from God. But at Versailles there are also the first hints that all human beings need to live at a simpler more human scale. In the surrounding woodlands, the Queen, Marie Antoinette had an ‘ordinary’ rural farmstead built for her, somewhere she could retreat to, and escape from the overwhelming formality of the royal court. This very showy style was popular in German and Austrian gardens too, and is known as ‘baroque’.

English Renaissance Gardens

English gardens tended to follow their own story, until 1685 when the death of Charles II brought Queen Mary to the throne. Mary had married Prince William of Orange in Holland where they had redesigned their palace and gardens of Het Loo in the French Renaissance style. They used the same ideas for Kensington Palace and they employed Sir Christopher Wren to design new buildings and gardens at Hampton Court. These gardens were places for pageants and entertainment of the royal court, but smaller less formal than in France. They were also used to display the new and often curious varieties of plants being produced by the emerging horticultural industry.

Hover over the thumbnail images to reveal an enlarged image.

Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Italy

Laid out 1550-80, by Pirro Ligorio. Spectacular garden with statues, nymphs, grottoes and amazing water features. Seen as a masterpiece, a ‘paradise’, it was copied throughout Europe.

Villa Lante, Viterbo, Italy, 1560-80

Designed by Vignolo. The layout is based on circles and squares, so that all elements of the garden: buildings, plants, water, terraces and slopes are perfectly proportioned.

Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome 1536-46

The famous Renaissance artist, Michelangelo, designed this harmoniously balanced open space, and surrounding buildings, for Pope Paul III. It symbolised the ‘new’ Rome.

Vaux-le-Vicomte, France, 1661

These ‘baroque’ gardens cover an area 3 km in length, but with Le Notre’s clever use of perspective and slope, they seem to stretch even further. The chateau is always in the key position.

Het Loo Palace, Holland: 1684

William and Mary’s gardens have fountains, statues and parterres, like Versailles, but are less ostentatious. They are a mixture of Renaissance, Baroque and French garden ideas.

The Privy Garden, Hampton Court, London

William and Mary soon replaced the old royal gardens with these formal parterres (now restored). But they kept the earlier Tudor buildings.