Science, Art, and Nature: Ancient Gardens in All Their Variety
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AJA ONLINE PUBLICATIONS: MUSEUM REVIEW SCIENCE, ART, AND NATURE: ANCIENT GARDENS IN ALL THEIR VARIETY BY ANNALISA MARZANO* IL GIARDINO ANTICO DA BABILONIA A ROMA: SCI- Herculaneum, from the National Museum in ENZA, ARTE E NATURA, LIMONAIA DEL GIARDINO Naples, and from the Capitoline Museum in DI BOBOLI, FLORENCE, 8 MAY–28 OCTOBER Rome. But there are also pieces from many 2007, curated by Annamaria Ciarallo, other collections, including the Uffi zi Gallery Ernesto De Carolis, Giovanni di Pasquale, (Florence), the Vatican Museums (Vatican and Fabrizio Paolucci. City), the British Museum (London), the Badisches Landesmuseum (Karlsruhe), and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin). The IL GIARDINO ANTICO DA BABILONIA A ROMA: SCI- central goal of the exhibition is twofold. On ENZA, ARTE E NATURA, edited by Giovanni one hand, it aims at illustrating the typologi- di Pasquale and Fabrizio Paolucci. Pp. 352, cal evolution of gardens from Babylonian to color fi gs. 350. Sillabe, Leghorn 2007. €35. Imperial Roman times. On the other hand, ISBN 978-88-8347-385-2 (paper). as indicated by its subtitle (Science, Art, and Nature), it also seeks to illuminate the various types and functions of gardens in the ancient The exhibition, Ancient Gardens from Babylon world. Some examples are the royal parks to Rome, mounted at the Boboli Gardens of the of Mesopotamia, which included various Palazzo Pitti in Florence, consists of two parts. plants to symbolize the vast region ruled by The fi rst is set in the Limonaia, a covered rect- the king; pleasure gardens; gardens that were angular space designed by Zanobi del Rosso places of study and science, which pioneered and built ca. 1778 as winter housing for the in botany and irrigation techniques; gardens Boboli Gardens’ many lemon trees, which are that were settings for philosophical educa- planted in vases (fi g. 1). After the great fl ood tion and cultured discussion; sacred gardens that hit Florence on 4 November 1966, the Li- associated with temples and sanctuaries; and monaia was used as an emergency storeroom the vegetable gardens and orchards of Roman for many waterlogged paintings on wooden townhouses. panels that were awaiting conservation. Since This may seem like an ambitious program the building’s restoration in 2005, it has been for a relatively small exhibition, but its intel- employed for temporary exhibitions during ligent selection of signifi cant examples, combi- the summer months, when the lemon trees nation of objects, wall texts, and computer and are moved outside. The second part of the technological displays works well in economi- exhibition, which is outdoors, is the full-scale cally sketching important aspects of gardens Online Museum Review reconstruction of peristyle gardens from two in antiquity for the visitor with no specialist Pompeiian houses: the House of the Vettii and knowledge. Those visitors with whom I spoke the House of the Painters at Work (fi g. 2). offered positive feedback about the installation The part of the exhibition set in the Li- and the curatorial choices. While the special- monaia features 150 ancient artifacts drawn ist may be disappointed upon discovering mostly from excavations at Pompeii and that the topics are not treated in much depth Issue 112.2 (April 2008) Journal of Archaeology American of America Institute the Archaeological © 2008 by Copyright * This review is dedicated to the memory of Wilhelmina Jashemski. Fig. 1. The Limonaia, Boboli Gardens, Florence (courtesy Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence, 65736). in the exhibition, one can always turn to the This exhibition offers a good balance of catalogue. The excellent modern models and printed information, objects, and audiovisual reconstructions and the objects from the store- material. However, the long and relatively nar- rooms of the Superintendency of Pompeii and row space of the Limonaia is divided in half to Herculaneum, which are not usually on display, guide the visitor through an elliptical itinerary, make this exhibition a rewarding experience for and this imposes space constraints that make all visitors. Notable pieces include the marble it particularly diffi cult, when the exhibition oscilla from the House of the Golden Lovers;1 is crowded, to view the objects, wall panels, a selection of the marble statues uncovered and computer screens or to hear their audio in the luxurious villa at Oplontis, which may narrations. However, there were few visitors have belonged to Poppea, wife of Nero; and when I saw the show, and the experience was the bronze fountain in the shape of the Ler- completely enjoyable. naean Hydra from the pool of the palaestra The indoor portion is divided into three sec- in Herculaneum.2 Moreover, the experience tions: (1) “Mesopotamia: The Birth of Gardens,” is enhanced by the exceptional setting of the (2) “The Greek World: The Gardens of the Gods Boboli Gardens, a Renaissance interpretation and Philosophers,” and (3) “The Roman World: of classical gardens. The dialectic between the From Center to Periphery.” This last, the largest exhibit proper and the contextualization offered section, focuses on the suburban gardens and by the Boboli Gardens, which are embellished parks of Rome, the horti (the center), and the by Roman statuary collected by the Medici gardens of the Vesuvian region (the periphery). family, richly enhances the visitor’s experience; The visitor’s itinerary begins with a brief refer- Online Museum Review there could hardly be a better setting for a show ence to Egypt, the location of the fi rst gardens on ancient gardens. known to have been created by men. Here, the 1 Superintendency of Pompeii, inv. nos. 55403, 2 Superintendency of Pompeii, inv. nos. 70055, 55404 (di Pasquale and Paolucci 2007, 284–85, nos. 70056, 70068, 70070, 70071, 72742, 72798, 72800, 3.B.30, 3.B.31). Oscilla are marble discs carved on 72818, 73299, 73300, 73302, 73303, 79242 (di Pas- each side or fashioned in the shape of theatrical quale and Paolucci 2007, 255–56, no. 3.B.1 [bronze masks. They were hung between the columns of fountain]; 258–69, nos. 3.B.2–3.B.14 [statues from American Journal of Archaeology American the peristyles surrounding the gardens. Oplontis]). 2 Fig. 2. Modern reconstruction of the fi rst-century C.E. Roman peristyle garden from the House of the Painters at Work in Pompeii (F. Principe and S. Bernacchini; courtesy Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence, 65704). wall text is complemented by a real papyrus II (604–562 B.C.E.) at the Southern Palace, may plant in a pond and by projected images that well have been real, as the existence of royal evoke the Egyptian world. gardens in Babylon is attested in cuneiform The section on Mesopotamia, though rather texts from the third and second millennia small, highlights well the essential aspects of B.C.E.4 The irrigation model shows two water- Sumerian and Assyrian civilizations related to lifting devices: the water wheel and the so- gardens, and the corresponding catalogue es- called Archimedean screw, whose invention say develops in detail the points referred to by and application is attributed to Archimedes in the display. Agriculture—the “domestication” classical sources but appears to have been in of nature—was the fi rst step toward achiev- use in Mesopotamia by the time of Sennacherib ing the man-made environment of gardens. (705/704–681 B.C.E.).5 Various objects on display that depict the The section devoted to the Greek world and ritual watering of potted plants and sacred the “Gardens of the Gods” is also compelling. trees (e.g., a schist vase fragment from the Images of Greek sanctuaries and associated Louvre, probably of the 22nd century B.C.E.3) plants (known either through archaeological show the importance in Mesopotamian society data or literary texts), appear on a screen ac- of religious beliefs and vegetation and water. companied by voice-over narration augment- A special treat in this section is the reconstruc- ing a selection of Greek vases with scenes tion of a Sumerian plow with an attachment connected to the world of gardens (e.g., the to dispense seeds, as well as a working model fourth-century B.C.E. red-fi gure squat lekythos illustrating possible devices used to irrigate the from the Badisches Landesmuseum [fi g. 3],6 Online Museum Review Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven which alludes to the Athenian feast of Adonis wonders of the ancient world. The gardens, and the ritual planting of seeds in pots that thought to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar were placed on the roofs of houses). This sec- 3 Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. AO 4673 (di 6 Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. Pasquale and Paolucci 2007, 188, no. 1.1). B39 (di Pasquale and Paolucci 2007, 207, no. 2.A.6). 4 Di Pasquale and Paolucci 2007, 199. The vase looks Athenian; however, its fabric is not 5 American Journal of Archaeology American Dalley and Oleson 2003. mentioned in the catalogue. 3 comic stage, as the setting and clothing of the fi gures clearly indicate, though this aspect is not explained in the accompanying label.8 An- other instance of missing information is in the section on Roman gardens, where the famous fi rst-century C.E. marble statue of Priapus from the garden of the House of the Vettii should be accompanied by an explanation of who Priapus is and why his statues were placed in gardens. If one does not know that, in addition to sym- bolically embodying fertility, this god was the custodian of gardens and their fruits against thieves, and he threatened to punish with sodomization those who repeatedly stole from gardens, the presence in Roman gardens of this male fi gure with a disproportionately large phallus would be puzzling to say the least.9 A highlight among the reconstructions is the working model of one of the pneumata mentioned by Heron of Alexandria in his trea- tise on pneumatics of the fi rst century C.E.