DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0027
INTRODUCTORY.
9
and from the confusion
of modes has arisen that
variety which, under the
guise of the “ English or
natural garden,” has
wrought so much havoc
among the old villa
gardens of Italy. It is
needless to elaborate the
point here, for, indeed,
too much has already been
written on the subject.
Except in so far as the
“ English garden ” is a
r e a c t i o n against the
crudities of the later
barocco,with its theatrical
and false naturalism, it is
of a rabbit. At present this school has got no further in this direction than a futile drapery
of creepers, as though a house were a clothes horse for damp greenery. The hillsides, lake
shores and boundless plains of Italy will always compel a “ lay-out ” of the garden area around
the house in accordance with its architecture and the dictates of a traditional good taste.
unlikely that a school so n.—ganymede: boboli gardens.
out of touch with archi-
tecture can ever find a permanent home in Italy. At present some Italians who have not
thought much on the subject are misled by the idea that the English garden stands for
Nature, and is thereby in some mysterious way freer and better than Art. Inasmuch as nature,
however, does not rain down houses ready fitted to selected beauty spots, it is obvious that by
no reasoning can we eliminate the art of man. The capital defect of the natural school lies
precisely in this, that it provides no setting for the indispensable house. To be complete in
its logic according to the natural scheme the house should be built on the cut-and-cover
principle, and then by a boulder-strewn gorge the natural man might emerge after the manner
> f_ 11_ '1 J*-o futile drqnprv
though a house were a clothes horse for damp greenery.
, vn icwxj _ r 1 i “ lay-out ” cr
with its architecture and the dictates of a traditional good taste.
Relations between
Italy and England, always
constant and cordial, have
had their periods of closer
contact at certain
memorable epochs.
Passing over the earlier
ages with a brief
reminiscence of Abbot
Ware’s visit to Rome in
1260, which gave us in
Westminster Abbey, the
Opus Alexandrinum pave-
ment and tombs with
inlays of Roman Cosmati
we come direct to Shute’s
famous visit in 1550. We
know that the first English
work on architecture, the
First and Chief Groundes,
published 1563, has left
its mark on the design of
12.—SARCOPHAGUS AS A WATER TROUGH, VILLA BORGHESE,
FRASCATI.
9
and from the confusion
of modes has arisen that
variety which, under the
guise of the “ English or
natural garden,” has
wrought so much havoc
among the old villa
gardens of Italy. It is
needless to elaborate the
point here, for, indeed,
too much has already been
written on the subject.
Except in so far as the
“ English garden ” is a
r e a c t i o n against the
crudities of the later
barocco,with its theatrical
and false naturalism, it is
of a rabbit. At present this school has got no further in this direction than a futile drapery
of creepers, as though a house were a clothes horse for damp greenery. The hillsides, lake
shores and boundless plains of Italy will always compel a “ lay-out ” of the garden area around
the house in accordance with its architecture and the dictates of a traditional good taste.
unlikely that a school so n.—ganymede: boboli gardens.
out of touch with archi-
tecture can ever find a permanent home in Italy. At present some Italians who have not
thought much on the subject are misled by the idea that the English garden stands for
Nature, and is thereby in some mysterious way freer and better than Art. Inasmuch as nature,
however, does not rain down houses ready fitted to selected beauty spots, it is obvious that by
no reasoning can we eliminate the art of man. The capital defect of the natural school lies
precisely in this, that it provides no setting for the indispensable house. To be complete in
its logic according to the natural scheme the house should be built on the cut-and-cover
principle, and then by a boulder-strewn gorge the natural man might emerge after the manner
> f_ 11_ '1 J*-o futile drqnprv
though a house were a clothes horse for damp greenery.
, vn icwxj _ r 1 i “ lay-out ” cr
with its architecture and the dictates of a traditional good taste.
Relations between
Italy and England, always
constant and cordial, have
had their periods of closer
contact at certain
memorable epochs.
Passing over the earlier
ages with a brief
reminiscence of Abbot
Ware’s visit to Rome in
1260, which gave us in
Westminster Abbey, the
Opus Alexandrinum pave-
ment and tombs with
inlays of Roman Cosmati
we come direct to Shute’s
famous visit in 1550. We
know that the first English
work on architecture, the
First and Chief Groundes,
published 1563, has left
its mark on the design of
12.—SARCOPHAGUS AS A WATER TROUGH, VILLA BORGHESE,
FRASCATI.