18th Century changes to English Gardens and Landscapes

     In the 18th century, many changes occurred within architectural landscapes due to the admiration for landscape paintings, the Grand tour and rediscovery of certain literature. 

     One of the first architects to influence the landscapes was Bridgeman. He was the inventor of the garden and landscape feature known as the ha-ha. In the Stowe it an for three miles total. This was meant to keep the cows and other large animals out of the garden and away from the house. This stemmed from the idea of "borrowed land". He was a transitional artist, there were bits of Baroque brought into the landscape although Baroque was vanishing and curvy lines were being introduced. His style to the garden added beauty but also low maintenance and low expense. It was rather to the British benefit because the owners typically made money off of the land. Bridgeman then built and designed the garden Stowe for Vanbrugh that was rather trendy. He sculpted the lawn and provided a layout with more formal elements being broken up by groups of trees and water. The main access was present however, there were many curved lines around it, offering a more informal look.  

     After Bridgeman was done, Kent came in and created a rather picturesque theater element to Stowe. In a way he turned it into 3-D art and were classically inspired. His gardens consisted of grottoes, temples and statues. It offered more than what Bridgeman did. These large features allowed for distant views of them through the open trees and hilly grass/lawn area. This led to a rather sculpted and picturesque garden. This landscape was meant to look like it was designed a certain way, not meant to be natural looking. The curvy paths he added to the garden created a large change to the garden's over head view. It also made the walking paths a bit more interesting because they intersected other paths to the large features within the garden.

     Finally, Lancelot added onto the design of Stowe. Lancelot was a commoner but was well educated and did a great job with the landscape through the societal and political events at this time. Stowe was designed to tell a story of the classics, politics, and sexual and moral narratives. Lancelot designed it so that when you read into it, one would start to see the layers of the tales. The classic story of the garden is telling the story of Hercules and his decision. He was given a moral choice between living a virtuous and tough life vs. a pleasurable life of vice. He chose the virtuous life of pain which is described and told through the split of the garden into the east and west side. The western garden represents the tale of lust which tells the vice life. The east side tells the story of the painful life which was believed among society to be the right life to take. The temple of ancient virtue represents the  virtuous people in life through their statues. Overall, Lancelot did not intend for Stowe to be 3 dimensional or theatrical. It was instead meant to be enjoyed in and of itself through its own beauty offered. 





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Why were the Versailles Gardens and Palace Built? What role did they play while King Louis XIV was in rule?

       The Garden of Versailles started out as a small hunting lodge built by Louis the XIII in 1623. This was intended as a weekend home retreat for his own leisure and enjoyment. He kept his mistresses there and provided them with lots of land for beautiful walks and a beautiful home. However, Versailles was added onto some time after the original infrastructure. It was built onto by Andre Le Notre in 1664. The contents of this garden were spectacular and the garden was open and grand. It carried a baroque style which encompassed an Orangery that had over 3,000 trees for citrus. It provided fruits and a beautiful aroma throughout the whole garden. This orangery expressed a strong presence of architecture of the Spain, Portugal and Italian influence. The baroque style also encompassed large extravagant fountains with lots of water use, a long canal, large lawn space and rich bosquets, which were ornamental groves incorporated throughout the garden.
      The Garden and palace of Versailles was built not only for its beauty and to be appeasing to the eye but it carried a statement of power. The statement of French wealth was highly influential in this garden and palace along with its protection to the King because of the dangerous status of Paris at the time. Perhaps the King wanted to transfer as much power as he could to his garden from Paris who held previous power. The different levels of the garden allowed for better protection and places for the King to hide away from enemies, not to mention even hiding some of his mistresses from the Queen herself.





       King Louis the XIV stressed the need for power during his rule. The garden of Versailles helped to compliment and satisfy this overall need for power. As mentioned earlier, his desire for power was expressed through the grandiose element to the garden and the prestige buildings built onto the garden and palace grounds. The spacious quarters around Versailles allowed for noblemen to live and share a life with the King. This privileged and benefited the noble men to have a nice living style and adequate supply of resources. However, this situation also benefited King Louis XIV because it created a source of power and establishment for him. This idea was known as a garden of control or better stated as, "A Golden Cage". This recreational space supplied theater and concerts, great statement of opulence to keep the noblemen happy, large scale entertainment and a garden of prestige for the noble men to walk around in and enjoy. This "Golden Cage", allowed opportunity for noblemen to live a luxurious life, but in turn, locked them into the King's power and rule. This system highlights a clear trade off.
      The monarchy which the King occupied was complimented by the inhabitant noblemen because this opportunity was understood as serving the King. Through this belief and idea, power and authority was promoted and spread throughout society and in turn, gained by the King during his rule. This royal authority carried on throughout the King's rule and was a deep component to the history of Versailles still discussed about today.



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English Garden Design

What were the key features of the English Gardens during the Renaissance and how was the Italian influence present?


The English gardens had four different phases throughout the Renaissance period which lasted from 1485-1714. The English gardens had several different features among the four different phases. The Italian influence came into context in the Caroline phase of the English Renaissance gardens from 1625-1642.

Early Tudor-1485-1558
-water features and knot garden features


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The Early Tudor highlighted the essence of "hortus conclusus" gardens, which were designed during the medieval times and meant for pleasure. This garden carried a royal French influence. This garden was meant to be for the pleasure and leisure time of King Henry VII. At this time, there were three royal gardens designed called the Hampton Court Palace, the Whitehall and the Nonsuch Palace. The location of these three gardens was important for their overall presentation. This location was intended for these gardens to be looked down upon in order to view their overall layout. This view was called the "piano nobile", which situated them underneath the state apartments of these three large royal gardens. Within all of these gardens, the main design previewed are termed knot gardens. They are intricate designs within the hedge. These gardens were also smaller which emphasized a more informal structure to the garden. However, there were typically four of these knot gardens surrounding a fountain which was placed in the middle. This highlighted more of a formal layout within the garden. Although it was small, it had a symmetrical layout with the four knot gardens and overall point of focus of the fountain.


The Elizabethan-1558-1603
-flowers with country home close by


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The Elizabethan had a medieval influence through the variety of flowers throughout the garden. However, the Elizabethan were not used for practical reasons the way the herb gardens in the medieval times were. The flowers of the Elizabethan were utilized more for pleasure and beauty rather than medicines or cooking. This close proximity of the garden to the house allowed for appreciation of the beauty of the garden. This proximity between the two was very simple and allowed for privacy which took more of an overall informal structure. These gardens were privately used by the owners of the home. This garden incorporated a Netherlandish influence because of the idea of the house and garden placed close together. Although there was still the pleasurable element of the French influence, the pleasure garden shifted to featuring any country house. Similar to the Early Tudor, the knot gardens continued to remain an element within these Elizabethan gardens.

The Jacobean-1603-1625
-expansion of space of the house and garden
-grottoes, fountains



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The Jacobean gardens had a French and Danish influence through Henry, Prince of Wales and Anne, of Denmark. A garden revolution was sparked between these two individuals and called for an expansion of the Elizabethan gardens previously designed. The idea of the house and garden together was built off of the original Elizabethan and then added onto with different architectural touches such as grottoes and fountains. As the new garden revolution begun, a series of new gardens were built as well. Overall, the Jacobean gardens had an informal structure because it was still private and close to the house. However, there was a step towards formality through the expansion of the physical space of these gardens.

The Caroline 1625-1642
-gates
-villa style


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The English Caroline Gardens incorporated the Italian influence during the renaissance. Inigo Jones promoted the Palladian style that was heavily focused on the Italian style of the villa. The relationship between the villa and the garden was introduced during this phase of the English gardens. This adopted a larger garden that gave way to a more formal garden structure and layout. A new feature that was incorporated into these gardens were, gardens gates. These gates were designed by Inigo Jones himself and termed, "Jonesian". The gates provided a more detailed and pronounced entrance into one's garden and villa. These gardens were fancier than the previous gardens, especially the Elizabethan's.

The Formal garden 1660-1714
-Plainer grass
This garden was the last to develop of the Renaissance time period. This garden introduced a more formal layout through eliminating the idea of "flower grass". The simplistic and more symmetrical look was intended for these gardens. The landscape incorporated plainer grass which gave a larger and more professional look. These gardens shifted away from the small and private scale gardens to the larger and more public. These more public places could have helped to establish more social interaction as the Renaissance ended and a new era began.