ITALIAN GARDENSPREPARED BY: MANSAROVAR, MUKUL, NIPUN

(Giardino all'italiana)

The Giardino all'italiana or Italian garden is stylistically based on:• SYMMETRY, •AXIAL GEOMETRY •THE PRINCIPLE OF IMPOSING ORDER OVER NATURE.

It influenced the history of gardening, especially French gardens and English gardens.

INTRODUCTION

•Italian renaissance gardens originate from the 15th century in Italy, where proud villas with luxurious and extravagant gardens told the tale of a life centered on leisure and prosperity.•The few who lived in these magnificent villas and roamed these fascinating gardens were fortunate during the time of the plague, usually avoiding it entirely.•The Italian renaissance garden innovated the art of gardening as well as the architecture of waterways.

HISTORY….

• During this period of experimentation and invention, the owners of the villas commissioned architects to build special pipes that would create fountains with continuously flowing water.• Prior to the Italian

Renaissance, Italian Medieval gardens were enclosed by walls, and were devoted to growing vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs, or, in the case of monastery gardens, for silent meditation and prayer.

• The Italian Renaissance garden broke down the wall between the garden, the house, and the landscape outside.

• The Italian Renaissance garden, like Renaissance art and architecture, emerged from the rediscovery by Renaissance scholars of classical Roman models.

HISTORY….

•ROMAN INFLUENCE INDOOR ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE

The garden was a place of peace and tranquillity —a refuge from urban life—and a place filled with religious and symbolic meanings. As Roman culture developed and became increasingly influenced by foreign civilizations through trade, the use of gardens expanded and gardens ultimately thrived in Ancient Rome.

INFLUENCES…

Italian Medieval gardens• ENCLOSED BY

WALLS, AND • FOR GROWING

VEGETABLES, FRUITS

AND MEDICINAL HERBS• MONASTRIAL

GARDENS, • FOR SILENT

MEDITATION AND PRAYER. Generally, monastic garden types consisted of kitchen gardens, infirmary gardens, cemetery orchards, cloister garths and vineyards. Individual monasteries might also have had a “green court,” a plot of grass and trees where horses could graze, as well as a cellarer’s garden or private gardens for obedientiaries , monks who held specific posts within the monastery.

INFLUENCES…

Italian Renaissance gardens• INSPIRED BY CLASSICAL IDEALS OF ORDER AND BEAUTY•FOR PLEASURE OF VIEW OF GARDEN ,LANDSCAPE BEYOND,• FOR CONTEMPLATION•FOR ENJOYMENT OF THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND SMELLS OF GARDEN ITSELF

During the late Renaissance, gardens became larger and even more symmetrical, and were filled with fountains, statues, grottoes, water organs and other features designed to delight their owners and amuse and impress visitors.

INFLUENCES…

• Geometrical patterned beds , or patterres are a distinct element of Italian style.

• Traditionally , Italian garden had few flowers.

• Display and backdrop for sculpture.

• Contrast of sun and shades.

• Water features• Green being dominant

color of the Italian garden.• There’s no single style in

Italian gardens, they have been shaped by climate, geography , history and Roman Renaissance.

• It basically displays careful design to showcase man’s control over nature.

• A perfect Italian garden brings them with fusion of formal and informal spaces.

• The geometrical plants take care of formal preview and a natural presentation suffices for the informal space.

• Separated into compartments that could be named, enclosed, and hidden to create an unfolding sequence of spaces. The axis organised and unified the whole composition.

FEATURES…

• Staircases• Balustrades• Sculpture• Cascades Pavilions• Shady Walkways• Water Fountains• Pavements• Promenade• Grotto

ELEMENTS…

Outlines with evergreen• The most recognizable

elements of classical Italian garden are the evergreen outlined beds.

• Box (buxus) hedge, myrtle , rosemary and other evergreen plants are trimmed into a hedge shape to divide the beds.

• More importantly , the hedges provided shape and green even in the garden’s fallow months because the Renaissance Garden is meant for year round pleasure.

Topiary and Statuary• Topiary: are evergreen

plants shaped and trimmed into amusing forms, are used to add humor and playfulness to the garden.

• Statuary is used to feature a fountain or a grotto. It is never vulgar or offensive, but humorous and graceful.

ELEMENTS…

Fruit Trees

• Renaissance Garden fruit trees are clipped and well tended.

• Some are planted in pots, others are planted in open ground, most often against wall.

• Citrus fruits are often planted up in pots so they can beset outdoors during warm months and indoors during winters.

• Other fruit trees are usually trained s arches or pegolas , when ther are not formed as an esplandes against a south facing wall for early ripening.

ELEMENTS…

Promenade and Arches• Evergreen often line

pathways and it’s not always box hedging. Laurel, Yew, Cypresses ,Fir ,Oaks ,Plum and Junipers trees are used to create green walls , arches and living pergolas.

• Footpaths are designed to offer varied walks with varied views through the garden.

Terracing• The ideal Renaissance

garden is terraced on gently sloping hillside. The various levels are joined up by paths and short flights of steps.

• Terraces are used mainly to divide the garden into “rooms” with varying “ moods” ,and to limit the vies and vistas.

• Looking down from a villa, however, the terraces should create a tableau of pleasuring vistas, artistically sculpted views.

ELEMENTS…

Trellises and Climbing Plants• Trellises are used to

“rooms” and line paths in the garden. They are trained with climbing plants like ivy, roses, honeysuckle, or grape vines.

• The climbing plants are also trained over structures such as pergolas, porticos and pavilions. Flowering climbers are preferred

Potted plants• Terra-cotta pots , often

covered with figures and designs are common decorative features in Renaissance Gardens.

• Flowers , fruits trees and herbs can be potted up and moved around the garden for variety and added colour . They are almost always displayed in balanced symmetry.

ELEMENTS…

Secret Garden and Grotto • A hideaway in the garden

that might contain a vine-draped pergola or just a tucked-away bench provides an intimate getaway space.

• Often an Italian garden includes a grotto -- an artificial cave filled with sculpture and furnishings where one can sip wine in a refreshingly cool space.

Water• The sound and cooling

effects of water are essential elements of the Italian garden, whether from bubbling fountains, pools or cascades. Often, an ornate stone fountain shooting arcs of water forms the focal point of the garden.

•  In old Italy, water triggers under the pathways would send water shooting out of hidden pipes when stepped on

ELEMENTS…

Fountain machine of 1588

Villa Medici in Fiesole• The oldest existing Italian

Renaissance garden is at the Villa Medici in Fiesole, north of Florence.

• The Villa Medici followed Alberti's precepts that a villa should have a view 'that overlooks the city, the owner's land, the sea or a great plain, and familiar hills and mountains,' and that the foreground have 'the delicacy of gardens.

EXAMPLES…

• The garden has two large terraces, one at the ground floor level and the other at the level of the first floor. 

• Unlike later gardens, the Villa Medici did not have a grand staircase or other feature to link the two levels.

•  From the reception rooms on the first floor, guests could go out to the loggia and from there to the garden so the loggia was a transition space connecting the interior with the exterior. 

EXAMPLES…

Villa Castello, Tuscany, (1538)• The garden was laid out on

a gentle slope between the villa and the hill of Monte Morello. Tribolo first built a wall across the slope, dividing it into an upper garden filled with orange trees, and a lower garden that was subdivided into garden rooms with walls of hedges, rows of trees and tunnels of citrus trees and cedars.

• A central axis, articulated by a series of fountains, extended from the villa up to the base of Monte Morello. In this arrangement, the garden had both grand perspectives and enclosed, private spaces

EXAMPLES…

• The lower garden had a large marble fountain that was meant to be seen against a backdrop of dark cypresses, with figures of Hercules and Antaeus. Just above this fountain, in the center of the garden, was a labyrinth formed by cypress, laurel, myrtle, roses and box hedges.

• At the far end of the garden and set against a wall, Tribolo created an elaborate grotto, decorated with mosaics, pebbles, sea shells, imitation stalactites, and niches with groups of statues of domestic and exotic animals and birds, many with real horns, antlers and tusks.

EXAMPLES…

• Above the grotto, on the hillside, was small wood, or bosco, with a pond in the center. In the pond is a bronze statue of a shivering giant, with cold water running down over his head, which represents either the month of January or the Apennine Mountains.

EXAMPLES…

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