The Italian Renaissance & The Garden

Through the emergence of the Italian Renaissance, Italy and many other parts of Europe were reborn into a beautiful new way of living and seeing life. It was the intellectual movement known as humanism, brought about by Francesco Petrarch at the end of the 14th century, that fueled these new ideals, and resurrected in many parts of Europe an entirely new way to view many things among man, nature, the world, and god. This cultural movement of the Renaissance, initiated by the Italians, profoundly affected European intellectual life through a reevaluation of mans relationship with God & nature, and a rediscovery of classical texts and philosophies. This period of life slowly flourished into being about putting order to, and the inter-relationship between, God, man, & nature.

(Francesco Petrarch)

"The confidence in human reason, which is a lasting legacy if the Renaissance, profoundly changed humanity's view of nature." This quote by Elizabeth Rogers, in her book on Landscape Designs, sums up how important of an aspect nature was to the Renaissance. Gardens-- offering a large connection to nature-- were profoundly intertwined with these new ideas and actions. This new realistic and humanistic way of thinking was now heavily expressed in the design and content of the garden. The liberation of science and the spirit of open-ended inquiry found expressive analogue in garden design (Rogers). The inwardly focused and self-contained gardens of the Medieval Age were no longer, as these new outwardly, humanistic, expressive and worldly gardens hit the scene. This new representation of nature was not inspired by a doctrinal religion, but by the human intellect alone.

It was the resurrection of axial planning and symmetry that lead the Renaissance garden towards a more spatial setting that extended its boundaries beyond closed walls. The idea of villas were reestablished and incorporated into the lifestyle of the people during the Renaissance, most usually the wealthy. They built these villas as a place to retreat to, similar to the Romans, but with the idea that it was also a place to cultivate the intellect, and then less important- the land.

(Italian Renaissance Garden)

Another aspect of the Renaissance was the reemergence of the classical forms and practices of antiquity. This style was imitated by artists as they now used it as inspiration in sculpture and decoration. With this new interest in antiquity emulated through art, an interest in the classical deities was reborn. The idea of Gods and Goddesses re-flourished, providing gardeners with an antique imagery that helped in styling these new spaces. Sculptures of these deities were often placed in the gardens arranged in "tableaux"(a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history) cultivating the garden in an ordered way. Besides the presence of sculpture in the garden, water was also another important element. As Rogers says in her book-- "Sculpture and water were used as elements in increasingly elaborate iconographic programs that celebrated the fruitful partnership humanity had achieved with nature through art and technology".

(Giusti Gardens, Verona)

Using the garden as a story book, and as a blank slate to be written on, people with this new humanistic education used gardens as a place to practice the intellectual lifestyle, and demonstrate aesthetic and intellectual values.

Italy, being the forefront of these humanistic ideals and movements, reached an especially productive time in the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the development of a well established Renaissance lifestyle. They developed the Italian Baroque style gardens, the idea of "secret garden" (a small enclosed space amongst the larger garden, where an intimate connection with nature could occur), and again- the reemergence of the Italian Villa. 

(Reanissance Style Italian Baroque Garden-Chateau Villandry)

The idea of villas being mounted upon higher elevations with a view of the surrounding countryside, became especially prominent and popular during the time of the Italian Renaissance. The Villa Medici at Fiesole, situated on a hillside over looking Florence, was one of the first gardens since ancient times to take advantage of it's scenery. Inevitably so, "scenic perspective" quickly became a large consideration when constructing these gardens, where location, orientation, structure and design became especially important in Italian Gardens. 

(Villa Medici at Fiesole)