Synopses & Reviews
The garden is of perennial interest to artists. Yet, as cultural attitudes toward the garden and how we enjoy it have changed, so too have the ways in which it has been represented in art. From a space for solitary communion with nature to the backdrop for a budding romance, and from a place for scientific study to the source of the foods we eat,
Painting Paradise looks at why the garden has remained such a seductive artistic subject.
For centuries, gardens have prompted reflection on the relationship between nature and man. They have also been considered representations of the divine, as in Flemish master Jan Brueghelandrsquo;s famous Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. Their ability to carry messages about their creatorandrsquo;s status will be clear to all who have had the pleasure of walking the grounds of meticulously manicured palaces or stately homes, but they are also evocative of prevailing cultural values and a desire to better understand, classify, and collect elements of the natural world. By the sixteenth century, artists were also attempting to bring the garden indoors as a source of design elements in the decorative arts, from seventeenth-century Flemish Pergola tapestries to handcrafted flowers from the Russian House of Fabergandeacute;.
Tracing these and other themes that attracted the attention of artists from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century, Painting Paradise explores how these ideas came to be expressed in ways characteristic to a particular place and time, including works in both the Eastern and Western traditions. The curator of an accompanying exhibition opening at Buckingham Palace, Vanessa Remington has weeded through the Royal Collection to cultivate a selection of paintings, drawings, manuscripts, tapestries, and jewelry of exceptional value and extraordinary beauty. With more than three hundred color illustrationsandmdash;including many treasures that have been previously unpublishedandmdash;the book will be of great interest to artists, art and design historians, and all who find inspiration in the beauty of the garden.
Synopsis
Gardens are where man and nature meet. They change by the hour, day-to-day, and with the seasons. They carry associations about the status, approach to life, and sometimes even the political affiliationsand#8232;of their creator.
Gardens can be intended for public enjoyment or private delectation; they can be open to the masses or closed to all but a few. They may be places of scientific study; havens for the solitary thinker; spaces for frolicking and games, for flirtation and for love.
Presented with the many faces of the garden, artists in Western Europe have looked at the garden in different ways, extracting and emphasising those facets of the garden unique to their culture and their time. At the same time individual elements drawn from the garden and#8211; whether architectural or botanic and#8211; have at certain periods come to the fore and taken their place in the decorative arts of Western Europe. This book explores the way in which the garden has inspired artists and craftsmen in Europe between 1500 and 1900.
About the Author
Vanessa Remington is Senior Curator of Paintings, Royal Collection Trust, and the author of several books highlighting its collection.
Roy Strong is a writer, broadcaster, art historian, and curator who has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1: Paradise
Chapter 2: The Sacred Garden
Chapter 3: The Renaissance Garden
Chapter 4: The Botanic Garden
Chapter 5: The Baroque Garden
Chapter 6: The Landscape Garden
Chapter 7: The Horticultural Garden
Chapter 8: The Garden Inside
Notes
Appendix: List of Exhibit Items
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
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