Section
Garden Design History
How garden styles arose and how famous gardens steer the eye, read from period plans and sightlines. Design history only: no planting advice or visitor info.
3 entries
-
Start here
Gardens of Versailles: The King Wrote Where to Stop and Look
Louis XIV wrote his own guide to the gardens of Versailles, telling visitors where to pause and look. On a 1726 plan, his main viewpoints sit on one long axis.
Image credit
"Adam Perelle, Veüe generale du chateau de Versailles, 1680s" by Adam Perelle — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adam_Perelle,_Ve%C3%BCe_generale_du_chateau_de_Versailles,_1680s.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) -
Japanese Garden: The Pond Came Centuries Before Raked Gravel
Japanese garden types in date order: the oldest known manual, the Sakuteiki, is about ponds and islands, and raked-gravel courtyards came centuries later.
Image credit
"De pruimenboomgaard te Kameido Kameido umeyashiki (titel op object) Honderd beroemde gezichten op Edo (serietitel) Meisho Edo hyakkei (serietitel op object), RP-P-1956-743" by Utagawa Hiroshige (Rijksmuseum) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_pruimenboomgaard_te_Kameido_Kameido_umeyashiki_(titel_op_object)_Honderd_beroemde_gezichten_op_Edo_(serietitel)_Meisho_Edo_hyakkei_(serietitel_op_object),_RP-P-1956-743.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) -
History of Garden Design: Styles Overlapped for Centuries
Dated gardens from seven traditions on one timeline, from Pasargadae to 1931, show styles overlapping for centuries instead of replacing one another in turn.
Image credit
"Wen Zhengming - Garden of the Inept Administrator - 1979.458.1a–ii - Metropolitan Museum of Art" by Wen Zhengming (Metropolitan Museum of Art) — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wen_Zhengming_-_Garden_of_the_Inept_Administrator_-_1979.458.1a%E2%80%93ii_-_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art.jpg — Public domain (Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), album dated 1551; US: the artist died more than 70 years ago and the work long predates 1931; EU: 70 years after the artist's death; a faithful photograph of a two-dimensional work adds no new rights)
_Honderd_beroemde_gezichten_op_Edo_(serietitel)_Meisho_Edo_hyakkei_(serietitel_op_object),_RP-P-1956-743.jpg){kind=link}
