Italian Renaissance Garden Design
Italian gardens like italian architecture in general led the way in garden design in the seventeenth century.
Italian renaissance garden design. This garden was created between 1552 ad 1584. The italian renaissance garden villa d este. During the first half of the sixteenth century magnificence came to be perceived as a princely virtue and all over the italian peninsula architects sculptors painters.
Renaissance style the architectural style was characterized by symmetry proportion geometry and the regularity of parts based on classical roman principles. At the villa madama in rome designed by raphael there is a fountain with a head of an elephant by giovanni da udine and two stucco figures by baccio baninelli. Perhaps the most extraordinary italian renaissance garden is at sacro bosco at bomarzo in lazio.
Garden features such as elaborately patterned beds and large parterres were carried out on a grandiose scale in france at versailles in england at hampton court palace and in austria at schönbrunn palace. By the 16th century and tied in with the age of discovery the. While the early italian renaissance gardens were designed for contemplation and pleasure with tunnels of greenery trees for shade an enclosed giardino segreto secret garden and fields for games and amusements the medici the ruling dynasty of florence used gardens to demonstrate their own power and magnificence.
Which could be ornately arranged in a sort of knot garden design. God s meadow each compartimenti was planted either with a single specimen or mixed planting increase the flower season and to show. These architectural elements were mirrored in garden hardscaping through terraces porticoes columns arches and other forms.
This italian style with its symmetry and other ideal elements strongly influenced the gardens of europe particularly in. Planting at villa ambrogiana. Within these italian renaissance gardens the use of water statuary symmetry topiary formal hedging and focal points are all key.
The principles behind these elements are at work in garden design the world over even in a very informal garden such as cholmondeley castle.