Rocznik Historii Sztuki (34.2009)

AROUND TI1H HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ITALIAN GARDENS: GEORGINA MASSON'S CONTRIBU TION

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2. Nymphaeum at Villa Giulia in Rome

Pindemonte and the work that, in 1792, opened the lively debate on the landscape garden promoted by Mel-
chiorre Cesarotti at the Padua Academy. Pindemonte warned against indiscriminate use of the landscape
garden, which in his opinion did not lend itself to ail settings but required particularly broad and naturally
rolling terrains, unlike the ancient but equally valid traditional formai Italian garden, which could also be
created on smaller and more level sites2.

The suggestions of Percier and Fontaine were promptly embraced by John Claudius Loudon. In his
Encyclopaedia of ' Gardening, printed in London in 1834 (the first édition dates to 1822), he agreed that the
"country seats of Italians [...] are arranged so as to produce the best effect; and advantage of the nature of
the site has been taken with admirable skill. The regularity of the gardens is, as it were, an accompanying
décoration and support to the architecture. The architecture, sculpture, and gardens of thèse villas are often
designed by the same hand, and concur in the gênerai effect to produce perfect harmony"3.

A short time later, at country houses such as Trentham, Chatsworth and Bowood, to name only a few,
formai flowerbeds replaced the rolling lawns designed by Capability Brown and extending right to the front
door. Charles Barry and Joseph Paxton were among the main advocates of the return to form in Victorian
gardens, and the sloping terraces of Shrubland Park, along with the architectural gardens of Sydenham, are
significant examples. In order to justify thèse choices, several scholars studied the origins of the formai gar-

d'elle, ils se lient avec la nature agreste du pays"; C. Percier, P.F.L. F o n t a i n e, Choix des plus célèbres maisons de campagne
de Rome et de ses environs, Paris 1824, p. 3; and M. A z z i V i s e n t i n i, Considerazioni sulla fortuna de/ 'landscape garden ' in
Italia, [in:] P. С a p о n e, P. L an z ar a, M. Ve n tur i F e r r i о 1 o (eds.), Pensare il giardino, Milan 1992, pp. 83-88, 85-87 ff.

2 I. Pi ndemonte, Dissertazione su i giardini inglesi e su/ merito in ciô de//"Italia [1792], [in:] Opérette di vari autori
intorno ai giardini inglesi ossia moderni, Verona 1817, pp. 17-64, now [in:] M. A z z i Vi sent in i (éd.), L'arte dci giardini.
Scritti teorici e pratici dal XIV al XIX secolo, 2 vols., Milan 1999, vol. 1, pp. 155-78. Regarding the Italian debate on the new
garden, pp. 22 ff.

3 J.C. Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Gardening, London 1834 (4th éd., lst ed. 1822), p. 48; A. A. Tait, Loudon and the
return toformality, [in:] E.B. Macdougal 1 (éd.), John Claudius Loudon and the Early Nineteenth Century in Great Britain.
Washington 1980, pp. 59-76; A z z i V i s e n t i n i, op. cit., pp. 86, 88 ff