DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0013
x
History of Garden Art
of much travel extending over more than ten years, is peculiarly difficult; what you actually
see with your eyes has to be "restored/' like a corrupt text, into its original context, and
then compared with traditions and ancient examples. This has been the only possible way
of finding the right place for each individual subject in the large canvas of the whole.
On the other hand, the picture could not be really alive unless the most important
gardens were treated separately as individuals, with as few gaps as possible. It is true
of all art, but especially of ours, that its life is closely interwoven with the life of
society, and the history of the one forms part of the history of the other. All important
currents of thought have affected the fate of the garden, and some of the outstanding
figures in history appear in a new light when they are fostering and furthering its ends.
The garden has an important determining influence on our interpretation of other arts,
and is itself affected thereby, more especially villa architecture, and at certain periods
sculpture.
In relation to the first half of my undertaking—the history prior to the Middle Ages
in Europe—I found no previous work worth mentioning, and I could not have attained
my goal without the friendly counsel of certain distinguished men of letters. For Egypt
I owe the warmest thanks to Hermann Ranke, for the Asiatic section I received important
hints from Carl Bezold, and for the Greek invaluable advice from my friend Georg Karo.
Alfred von Domaszewski has helped me with the Roman gardens, Carl F. Becker with
the account of Islam, and Friedrich Sarre and Ernst Her^feld have both put material at
my disposal. I owe to Albrecht Haupt my best authorities for the Portuguese section.
For the Middle Ages I have had much help from the untiring friendliness of Paul Clemens,
and I here thank Erich Frank for his careful kindness in the heavy business of proof
correcting.
I found much kind help in various libraries, especially in the Hof und Landes Bib-
liothek at Karlsruhe, the Bibliothek des Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin, and in the
Bibliotheque d'Art et d'Archeologie in Paris. I should also like to thank the gentlemen
in the library at Heidelberg for their constant kind help. But before all others is my gratitude
due to the Koniglich Preussischen Akademie des Bauwesens for accepting this book as
one of its own publications, and for issuing it with the fine illustrations which it could
not otherwise have had, though to a work of this kind they are nearly indispensable. I am
also very glad to thank the publisher for his unselfish assistance in many ways.
The book should appeal to readers of many sorts: to the archaeologist, to the historian
of art, to the historian, indeed, of any kind of civilisation, to all of whom it should be
useful in paving the way to a special subject of research which, one hopes, will no longer
be neglected. But perhaps the best result that my lengthy work can hope for is to get a grip
on the actual life and conduct of to-day. Among non-professional people a natural love
for the garden may be stimulated by the story of past days; and if it should come about
that practical artists revert to the formal style, some knowledge and understanding of
the chances and changes of thousands of years should be helpful in their work. My wish
is that they may find not so much a storehouse of the ideas of great masters of the past,
as an abundant harvest for their own creations in the present day.
MARIE LUISE GOTHEIN.
Heidelberg, September 1913.
History of Garden Art
of much travel extending over more than ten years, is peculiarly difficult; what you actually
see with your eyes has to be "restored/' like a corrupt text, into its original context, and
then compared with traditions and ancient examples. This has been the only possible way
of finding the right place for each individual subject in the large canvas of the whole.
On the other hand, the picture could not be really alive unless the most important
gardens were treated separately as individuals, with as few gaps as possible. It is true
of all art, but especially of ours, that its life is closely interwoven with the life of
society, and the history of the one forms part of the history of the other. All important
currents of thought have affected the fate of the garden, and some of the outstanding
figures in history appear in a new light when they are fostering and furthering its ends.
The garden has an important determining influence on our interpretation of other arts,
and is itself affected thereby, more especially villa architecture, and at certain periods
sculpture.
In relation to the first half of my undertaking—the history prior to the Middle Ages
in Europe—I found no previous work worth mentioning, and I could not have attained
my goal without the friendly counsel of certain distinguished men of letters. For Egypt
I owe the warmest thanks to Hermann Ranke, for the Asiatic section I received important
hints from Carl Bezold, and for the Greek invaluable advice from my friend Georg Karo.
Alfred von Domaszewski has helped me with the Roman gardens, Carl F. Becker with
the account of Islam, and Friedrich Sarre and Ernst Her^feld have both put material at
my disposal. I owe to Albrecht Haupt my best authorities for the Portuguese section.
For the Middle Ages I have had much help from the untiring friendliness of Paul Clemens,
and I here thank Erich Frank for his careful kindness in the heavy business of proof
correcting.
I found much kind help in various libraries, especially in the Hof und Landes Bib-
liothek at Karlsruhe, the Bibliothek des Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin, and in the
Bibliotheque d'Art et d'Archeologie in Paris. I should also like to thank the gentlemen
in the library at Heidelberg for their constant kind help. But before all others is my gratitude
due to the Koniglich Preussischen Akademie des Bauwesens for accepting this book as
one of its own publications, and for issuing it with the fine illustrations which it could
not otherwise have had, though to a work of this kind they are nearly indispensable. I am
also very glad to thank the publisher for his unselfish assistance in many ways.
The book should appeal to readers of many sorts: to the archaeologist, to the historian
of art, to the historian, indeed, of any kind of civilisation, to all of whom it should be
useful in paving the way to a special subject of research which, one hopes, will no longer
be neglected. But perhaps the best result that my lengthy work can hope for is to get a grip
on the actual life and conduct of to-day. Among non-professional people a natural love
for the garden may be stimulated by the story of past days; and if it should come about
that practical artists revert to the formal style, some knowledge and understanding of
the chances and changes of thousands of years should be helpful in their work. My wish
is that they may find not so much a storehouse of the ideas of great masters of the past,
as an abundant harvest for their own creations in the present day.
MARIE LUISE GOTHEIN.
Heidelberg, September 1913.