DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0321
The English Landscape Garden
301
of his fears for their rum. But in spite of this he sees in their monotony no subject worthy
of a poem, for the old gardens were the offspring of architects, the new of philosophers,
painters, and poets. The programme he sets out has no single original feature; its leading
thought is for picturesque Contrast. "Imitate Poussin," he cries, "for he paints the
merry dance of shepherds, and beside it sets a grave with the inscription, ' I too was a
shepherd m Arcady.'"
Somewhat later, Germany also experienced a change, no doubt under the influence
of England, and it brought about her own characteristic flowering. In her attitude towards
the new style she filled a far more important role than France. The circle of Swiss poets
around Bodmer had eagerly seized upon Spence's first principle, ut pictura poesis, but had
also accepted Shaftesbury's and Thomson's gospel of the greatness and ennobling effect
of untouched Nature, and had developed the idea at the same time as their compatriot at
Geneva, if not perhaps so violently. And so we find in the poets of this school, Kleist
and Gessner, the first expression of ill-will and actual revolt against the "cleverly laid-
out gardens with their green walls, and labyrinths, and obelisks of yew rising in stiff ranks,
and gravel paths, so laid that no plant may annoy the foot of the stroller." "Too bold
man," Gessner cried, "why strive to adorn Nature by using imitative arts? What I love
is the country meadow and the wild hedgerow." But in his pictures (which this poet-artist
paints in the utmost sympathy with his idylls) he seems quite happy with lattices and
bowers; and in the graceful idyll, My Wish, he depicts the garden behind the house,
"where simple Art assists the lovely fantasies of Nature with helpful obedience, not
endeavouring to make her the material for its own grotesque transformations"—though
all the same this garden is enclosed by walls of nut-bushes, and in each corner stands a
little bower of wild-currant.
Kleist, who borrows from English sources the mimical feeling towards the old style,
hails the tulip, afterwards so much despised as stiff and formal, as the "Princess
among Flowers."
This group, which is like the coterie around Gleim in North Germany, is still at
the stage of the first plan of Stowe, the pre-Kent period. Gleim gave to his "Hiittchen"
with its little garden a touch of the antique, by arranging that he was to be buried there,
surrounded by memorial stones put up to his friends, who had so often gathered round
him in this garden. Thus in Germany too we see that poets started the movement; and
there they reappear, though some decades later, as critics and theorists. Sulzer in his
Theory of the Fine Arts, dated at the beginning of his seventieth year, adheres closely to
Home's first principle, that Nature is the supreme gardener, but that horticulture, like
every other art, is an imitation of Nature, to be classed with the arts of drawing and design.
Mason, with his insistence on design, was immediately ahead of him. And then, as Cham-
bers had meanwhile come forward with his glorification of Chinese gardens, Sulzer cut
himself adrift, especially from the Chinese style, which he disliked and opposed.
A little later began the activity of a man who, because of the popularity of his style as
a painter, was of immense importance in Germany, the Professor of Philosophy at Kiel,
Christian Hirschfeld. As early as 1773 he wrote his first paper, Observations on Garden
Art, which was followed two years later by a short Theory of Horticulture; and from
1779 his great work in five volumes, History and Theory of Horticulture, began
to come out. Hirschfeld wrote at a favourable moment for Germany. Before him in
301
of his fears for their rum. But in spite of this he sees in their monotony no subject worthy
of a poem, for the old gardens were the offspring of architects, the new of philosophers,
painters, and poets. The programme he sets out has no single original feature; its leading
thought is for picturesque Contrast. "Imitate Poussin," he cries, "for he paints the
merry dance of shepherds, and beside it sets a grave with the inscription, ' I too was a
shepherd m Arcady.'"
Somewhat later, Germany also experienced a change, no doubt under the influence
of England, and it brought about her own characteristic flowering. In her attitude towards
the new style she filled a far more important role than France. The circle of Swiss poets
around Bodmer had eagerly seized upon Spence's first principle, ut pictura poesis, but had
also accepted Shaftesbury's and Thomson's gospel of the greatness and ennobling effect
of untouched Nature, and had developed the idea at the same time as their compatriot at
Geneva, if not perhaps so violently. And so we find in the poets of this school, Kleist
and Gessner, the first expression of ill-will and actual revolt against the "cleverly laid-
out gardens with their green walls, and labyrinths, and obelisks of yew rising in stiff ranks,
and gravel paths, so laid that no plant may annoy the foot of the stroller." "Too bold
man," Gessner cried, "why strive to adorn Nature by using imitative arts? What I love
is the country meadow and the wild hedgerow." But in his pictures (which this poet-artist
paints in the utmost sympathy with his idylls) he seems quite happy with lattices and
bowers; and in the graceful idyll, My Wish, he depicts the garden behind the house,
"where simple Art assists the lovely fantasies of Nature with helpful obedience, not
endeavouring to make her the material for its own grotesque transformations"—though
all the same this garden is enclosed by walls of nut-bushes, and in each corner stands a
little bower of wild-currant.
Kleist, who borrows from English sources the mimical feeling towards the old style,
hails the tulip, afterwards so much despised as stiff and formal, as the "Princess
among Flowers."
This group, which is like the coterie around Gleim in North Germany, is still at
the stage of the first plan of Stowe, the pre-Kent period. Gleim gave to his "Hiittchen"
with its little garden a touch of the antique, by arranging that he was to be buried there,
surrounded by memorial stones put up to his friends, who had so often gathered round
him in this garden. Thus in Germany too we see that poets started the movement; and
there they reappear, though some decades later, as critics and theorists. Sulzer in his
Theory of the Fine Arts, dated at the beginning of his seventieth year, adheres closely to
Home's first principle, that Nature is the supreme gardener, but that horticulture, like
every other art, is an imitation of Nature, to be classed with the arts of drawing and design.
Mason, with his insistence on design, was immediately ahead of him. And then, as Cham-
bers had meanwhile come forward with his glorification of Chinese gardens, Sulzer cut
himself adrift, especially from the Chinese style, which he disliked and opposed.
A little later began the activity of a man who, because of the popularity of his style as
a painter, was of immense importance in Germany, the Professor of Philosophy at Kiel,
Christian Hirschfeld. As early as 1773 he wrote his first paper, Observations on Garden
Art, which was followed two years later by a short Theory of Horticulture; and from
1779 his great work in five volumes, History and Theory of Horticulture, began
to come out. Hirschfeld wrote at a favourable moment for Germany. Before him in