The European Garden I :

The European Garden I : ............................................ I ............................................ Progetto editoriale: Angelo Pontecorboli Tutti i diritti riservati Angelo Pontecorboli Editore, Firenze www.pontecorboli.com – [email protected] ISBN 978-88-00000-00-0 2 Mariella Zoppi e European Garden ANGELO PONTECORBOLI EDITORE FIRENZE 3 4 C 5 Introduction As with all written histories of the garden, this one begins with the most ancient civilizations and thus dedicates much attention to the Roman Empire. is way, the ordinary has little that is ritual or can be foreseen and one can witness the true origins of gardens which arrived from western culture. ese origins were not lost in the centuries which passed by each other, but were a constant source of inspiration for the civilizations which came and went in the Mediterranean Basin. e Mediterranean, for an extremely long period stretching from 2000 BC to the late fourteenth century, was almost exclusively the scenery of western culture. Diverse peoples acquired economic and political hegemony, they imposed laws, customs and artistic models which merged with pre-existing backgrounds and styles which then expanded throughout Northern European and African countries. Ideas from the East, such as science, religion and artistic models, fil- tered throughout the Mediterranean. Nomadic populations reached Mediterranean shores and so cultures and customs were brought together for several centuries in a relatively small circle. It was on the edges of the Mediterranean where the two fundamental ideas of garden design, the formal and the informal, were created and confronted each other. Here, the garden became the idealization of a perfect and immutable world, the mimesis of nature. It was a romantic relived of an aesthetic naturalness blessed by the gods and given to men. It became a symbol of perfection and of creation. 7 These two concepts were never separated or opposed but were integrated with each other in such a way that one let the other pre- vail at various times. In Egypt, geometric rigor dominated the organization of space within the garden. In Mesopotamian gardens, nature became a “paradise” of enchantment and wonder, but main- tained a neat and harmonious appearance. In Greece, the garden was the dream of earthly transposition from the Golden Age, where fruits and flowers grew spontaneously and there were no seasons. In Rome, shapes that were accurately studied and defined by topiary arts organized open spaces, private or public according to schemes which still exist today. Over time, it was not only the garden, a defined and enclosed space, which changed depending on its human caretakers. The landscape itself where the garden appeared was an object of continuous transformation and change. Environments which today are familiar to us like the greenery around Ravenna, the terraced slopes of the Costiera Amalfitana with citrus-trees, or the almond trees in the Valle di Agrigento. They each have their own date of birth, while in the whole Mediterranean vines and olive trees live together with peach-trees and pomegranates since the ninth century on. In a simi- lar way, fig trees and cypress have learned to coexist happily with citrus-trees. Before the Arabic conquest, in Southern Italy and Sicily in particular, landscapes were still like the first century after Christ; characterized by a variety of plants and landscapes very reduced in all parts of the peninsula. As is well known, few species of flowers and trees were used by the Romans. Only in some refined Pompeian paintings one can see, as an exceptionally decorative element, a lone lemon tree growing within an exultation of laurel plants and roses. The beautiful rose has dominated the centuries and crossed civilizations. It can be cut, woven into garlands and cultivated inside pots. It is a vibrant, luxuriant and vital ornament of mystical and secular gardens. The white rose of the Tudors was an important compliment in any portrait of Elizabeth I of England. It was a mys- 8 tical symbol of the purity of the Virgin or in the Roman de la Rose, the rose of love incarnation of youth, chivalry and courtly love. With time, an incredible variety of flowers were added to the garden along with the rose. From the near East, the first carnations and tulips arrived in Europe. Then, from further lands came the narcissus, passion flower and convolvulus. Later on arrived the agave, fuchsia and an incredible variety of new species with an infinite gamut of colors, which joyously invaded all gardens. Taste, feeling, aesthetic sense and garden form changed. Shapes transformed from cloister, enclosed, scented, oasis of peace and calm far from the suffering of the world, into the exaltation of reason and capacity of man, interpreter and measure of all things. It successively became the scenographic and commemorative magnificence of power of the man- king who consecrates his triumph and his glory; that man who becomes the “sun”, the engine of all things, and makes nature come alive around himself. He is the king who, for the divine will, celebrates himself through the splendors of his garden. New values affirmed themselves, the Industrial and French Revo- lution put the bases of a different social organization and a renewed aesthetic sense. Nature, mother of all things, permeated the idea of the garden’s plan, and gradually, invaded cities. Trees, grasses and flowers were fragile and changing elements which composed the garden and became symbolic elements. They ran along the centuries and pervaded civilizations, witnessing human feeling and aspirations, enchanted dreams soaked in art and poetry. The history of the garden is intertwined with the history of ideas, of the way people live together, a reflection of government, the tastes and organizational capacity of different societies. The history of the garden is a history of images, dreams and memories: it is simply, the history of humankind. Mariella Zoppi Florence, 14 May 2016 9 e Ancient Mediterranean “Paradises” “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden”. G : Ancient Egypt e first gardens we know anything about are those which bloomed in places where nature shows her harshest face. Egypt was the first of the ancient civilizations to preserve docu- mentary evidence of its earliest gardens and is also the country which, because of its longevity and cultural dynamism, most influenced both Greek and Roman culture. One of the oldest artefacts to give us a glimpse into how gardens were constructed in that ancient era is a miniature knoun as “dolls’ house” found in the tomb of Meketre (2000 BC). e little wooden model now on display in New York’s Metropolitan Museum, repre- sents a garden, surrounded by sycamore trees, larger than the humble house, which is little more than a portico covering a bath. It was only during the reign of the XVIII Dynasty that gardens became truly important and complex structures in their own right. In the tomb of Imeni, the architect of Tuthmosis I (1528-1510 BC), we find the portrayal of a vast garden enclosed by walls, dotted with houses, and surrounded by tall trees with a large rectangular bath 11 framed by shrubs and columns of palm trees. Imeni includes an exact inventory of the essences which were planted and his meticu- lous report gives us an idea of just how important vegetation was in Egyptian culture. The preferred flora was not just ornamental (palms or tamarisks) and included fruit trees, which provided nutritious food (figs, pomegranates or dates) or from which the oils and milky substances used to prepare salves, cosmetics and medicine could be extracted. There were indigenous plants as well as imported ones (pomegranates and olive trees). At Tell el-Amarna gardens were an integral part of both civic and sacred architecture. The most important villas and temples were more often than not protected by high walls with one or more entrance gates. Service buildings leant against the outer walls, while inside the enclosed gardens pavilions were scattered here and there, inter- spersed with canals and ponds on which small boats floated, or with tree-lined, shady walkways and woods. The gardens around the Aten temple and the Amun temple (the tomb of Sannufer, the Mayor of Thebes in the 15th century BC) are fine examples. The Egyptian garden was lovingly isolated from the harsh sur- rounding desert. Water and shade were its most valuable attrib- utes, understandable in this land where the sun’s rays are particu- larly intense, and the importance of its strict lines, precise layout and geometric design should not be underestimated. The garden’s perimeter was regular and emphasized by high pro- tective walls. These walls have many meanings and should be studied from a geomorphologic point of view: flat terrain surrounded by a desert landscape through which the all-important Nile flows, the fountain of life, nurturer of growing things, giver of precious water and tamer of the torrid climate. The presence of an enclosure gave the garden an orderly shape and provided safety, the walls separated a well-defined and structured world from the wild and inhospita- ble desert beyond it. It is the beginning of the contrast, or conflict, between the concepts of “inside” and “outside”, between the canons, 12 proportions and rules of a fenced garden, and external chaos, com- parable to our ‘wild’ or ‘untamed’ countryside. It is a contrast which many centuries later, during Italy’s Renaissance period, will find its highest and most sophisticated expression. The walls also assume a psychological function, providing a safe haven from indiscrete eyes and public perusal as they define an intimate, private or sacred place, protected and separated. In a more practical sense they were built to defend against attacks by hostile foreign tribes, ferocious beasts or, simply, lashing wind and stinging sand storms.

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