DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0116
88
History of Garden Art
them to-day in Italian gardens. The interior was coated with tufa, or pumice-stone, and
shells; and the floor, especially the part near the water, was covered with soft moss.
The same sort of moss grew on the borders of the basin, in the central tank, and in the
houses. For protection against the broiling sun red curtains were stretched across.
At first the sanctuaries of the Muses were similarly arranged, for the Muses were also
honoured in grottoes; but when the philosophers assembled for learned discourses, halls
were made instead. Thus always have the museums of a philosopher's garden been meta-
morphosed, though with the nymphseums the case is different. We learn from poetry
that they kept up their old character for solitude, seclusion, and cool shade, which had
shown itself in Hellenistic times and always remained the same. In Horace's lovely ode,
"O fons Bandusiae," we have a description in the Latin tongue of one of these beautiful
nymph sanctuaries.
One great attraction of Cicero's Arpinum was the fine supply of natural water, which
he no doubt procured for the sake of the nymphaeum. The rushing stream of the
Fibrenus flows round a small island and forms a delta before it empties itself into the
River Liris. The villa probably stood below the island, but in any case the island
belonged to the garden. Cicero had made a palaestra here, as we may now assume, a
garden with shady trees and comfortable seats, perhaps like the Platanistas at Sparta around
which the Euripus flows. That Cicero had a place here for games is not at all probable,
for this was his favourite resort from the orator's point of view, where he retired when
he wanted to think or read by himself, and where he brought his friends for the dialogue
about the Laws. With this abundance of water Cicero might well laugh and tease his
friends when they, who had far grander villas, spoke of an artificial canal as "like the Nile,"
or "like Euripus." But, when it was needed, Cicero was most anxious to get artificial
irrigation, and at the Fufidian farm, a place belonging to his brother Quintus, he wanted both
a piscina and a fountain: at another of his villas Quintus had himself given the name of
Nile to his canal, but he had no grove and no palaestra, and Cicero advised him to put
these in. He paid a visit of inspection to the place when Quintus was absent in the field,
and in a detailed letter sends him a report, mentioning various important particulars.
The porticoes have a prominent place: they often contain statues, and open on palaestras,
or xysta, and other features of a park, which Vitruvius always insists upon. Since people
were fond of having the villa at the foot of a hill, and the dwelling-house as a rule some-
what higher up, it was natural to make the garden in the form of terraces; and it is clear
that this was already done in Cicero's time from his description of Tusculanum, where
he not only talks of the upper and lower part, but also "walks down" into the Academy.
Cicero's words show that it was not a mere tradition—already fading after the time
of Hellenism—that bequeathed to this Roman group of educated men the sort of garden
that owed some of its characteristics to the Greek gymnasiums, but that they themselves
felt a wish to have their gardens just like those of the philosophers in the most flourishing
days of Greece. It is quite likely that these men tried to pave the way for the adoption in
Italy of the Greek garden style more than other people did; at any rate, none of the other
gardens and later villas show so lively a sense of relationship. Be that as it may, Columella
reproves the fashion of wanting so many departments in a place, great pillared halls,
immense bath-rooms, and almost everything "that the Greeks had in their gymnasiums,"
also libraries, museums, towers for fine views, ponds, fountains, and waterfalls. So here,
History of Garden Art
them to-day in Italian gardens. The interior was coated with tufa, or pumice-stone, and
shells; and the floor, especially the part near the water, was covered with soft moss.
The same sort of moss grew on the borders of the basin, in the central tank, and in the
houses. For protection against the broiling sun red curtains were stretched across.
At first the sanctuaries of the Muses were similarly arranged, for the Muses were also
honoured in grottoes; but when the philosophers assembled for learned discourses, halls
were made instead. Thus always have the museums of a philosopher's garden been meta-
morphosed, though with the nymphseums the case is different. We learn from poetry
that they kept up their old character for solitude, seclusion, and cool shade, which had
shown itself in Hellenistic times and always remained the same. In Horace's lovely ode,
"O fons Bandusiae," we have a description in the Latin tongue of one of these beautiful
nymph sanctuaries.
One great attraction of Cicero's Arpinum was the fine supply of natural water, which
he no doubt procured for the sake of the nymphaeum. The rushing stream of the
Fibrenus flows round a small island and forms a delta before it empties itself into the
River Liris. The villa probably stood below the island, but in any case the island
belonged to the garden. Cicero had made a palaestra here, as we may now assume, a
garden with shady trees and comfortable seats, perhaps like the Platanistas at Sparta around
which the Euripus flows. That Cicero had a place here for games is not at all probable,
for this was his favourite resort from the orator's point of view, where he retired when
he wanted to think or read by himself, and where he brought his friends for the dialogue
about the Laws. With this abundance of water Cicero might well laugh and tease his
friends when they, who had far grander villas, spoke of an artificial canal as "like the Nile,"
or "like Euripus." But, when it was needed, Cicero was most anxious to get artificial
irrigation, and at the Fufidian farm, a place belonging to his brother Quintus, he wanted both
a piscina and a fountain: at another of his villas Quintus had himself given the name of
Nile to his canal, but he had no grove and no palaestra, and Cicero advised him to put
these in. He paid a visit of inspection to the place when Quintus was absent in the field,
and in a detailed letter sends him a report, mentioning various important particulars.
The porticoes have a prominent place: they often contain statues, and open on palaestras,
or xysta, and other features of a park, which Vitruvius always insists upon. Since people
were fond of having the villa at the foot of a hill, and the dwelling-house as a rule some-
what higher up, it was natural to make the garden in the form of terraces; and it is clear
that this was already done in Cicero's time from his description of Tusculanum, where
he not only talks of the upper and lower part, but also "walks down" into the Academy.
Cicero's words show that it was not a mere tradition—already fading after the time
of Hellenism—that bequeathed to this Roman group of educated men the sort of garden
that owed some of its characteristics to the Greek gymnasiums, but that they themselves
felt a wish to have their gardens just like those of the philosophers in the most flourishing
days of Greece. It is quite likely that these men tried to pave the way for the adoption in
Italy of the Greek garden style more than other people did; at any rate, none of the other
gardens and later villas show so lively a sense of relationship. Be that as it may, Columella
reproves the fashion of wanting so many departments in a place, great pillared halls,
immense bath-rooms, and almost everything "that the Greeks had in their gymnasiums,"
also libraries, museums, towers for fine views, ponds, fountains, and waterfalls. So here,