DOI article:
Azzi Visentini, Margherita: Around the historiography of Italian gardens: Georgina Masson's contribution; [Rezension]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14576#0034
28
MARGIIKRITA AZZI VISF.NTINI
den in the British Isles, discussed by Reginald Blomfield in The Formai Garden in England { \ 892) and Inigo
Triggs in Formai Gardens in England and Scotland (1902), just as Colen Campbell had done in the early
18th century in his Vîtruvius Britannicus (comprising several volumes, the first of which published in 1715).
Campbell reprodueed classic English buildings, juxtaposing them - with nationalistic pride - against those
depicted in the plates from Palladio's / Quattro Libri dell Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), for
which Giacomo Leoni oversaw the first unabridged édition in Italian, French and English, published in instal-
ments between 1716 and 1720 (although the first one is backdated to 1715).
The works cited so far, written mainly by architects and landscape architects, focused above ail on
underscoring the architectural structure and layout of the individual villas and their gardens, whose compo-
sitional principles were suggested as examples for modem landscape architects to follow. However, when
art history was first established as a modem discipline in Germany in the mid-18th century, there also emerged
growing interest in the history of the Italian garden per se, its development and its relationship with other
artistic expressions, i.e. architecture, sculpture and painting.
One of the pioneers in this field was the Berlin scholar Wilhelm Petrus Tuckermann, whose Die Gar-
tenkunst der italienischen Renaissance-Zeit (1884) developed the concepts that Jacob Burckhardt had set
forth in Der Cicerone (1855; The Cicerone, 1873) and Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860; The
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878) and traced the history of the villa garden in Italy, examining
the area around Rome, Tuscany, Genoa, the Lombard lakes (which were transformed into a botanical para-
dise following the introduction of exotic species in the 19th century) and Sicily. This work covers everything
from ancient Rome to the revival of the Italian villa promoted by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the early 19th
century on the banks of the Havel in Potsdam and elsewhere. It also examines factors that influenced its
évolution, from the orographie conformation of the land to climate, which varies widely from one end of
Italy to the other. Tuckermann cited the Cortile del Belvédère and the Villa Madama, both of which in Rome,
as the starting point for a new way of conceiving the relationship not only between interior and exterior and
between buildings and gardens in the villa setting, but also between the villa and the landscape, positing an
argument that, later taken up by James Pray in his article "The Italian Garden" published in 19004, was
unanimously accepted. The book is illustrated with about 60 figures, views and plans taken from old prints
or created specifically for the work, as well as several photographs. It was soon followed by the works of
German art historians Bernhard Patzak on the Imperial Villa in Pesaro (1908) and Walter Friedlânder on the
Casino of Pius IV at the Vatican (1912). Alongside the works of Domenico Gnoli (1905), Thomas Ashby
(1908) and Christian Huelsen (1917) about the collections of ancient statues in the gardens of Rome, thèse
publications immediately became key références5.
In the late 19th century, the appeal of the Italian villa garden also spread across the Atlantic, thanks to
New York artist Charles A. Platt, who took his paintbrushes and camera with him when he accompanied his
brother William to Italy in 1886, in the hopes of dissuading him from the landscaping style he had embraced
at Frederick Law Olmsted's firm. Platt would return to Italy several times. In 1893 he wrote several articles
on the subject that were collected in Italian Gardens, which was published the following year. This work
examines the gardens of 19 villas (15 in Rome and the Roman countryside, the Neapolitan villa of Portici,
Florence's Boboli Gardens and the garden of the Villa di Castello, and the Giusti Garden in Verona) and is
illustrated with Platt's own sketches and photographs, accompanied by texts that are little more than long
captions. Platt's goal was to demonstrate the "évident harmony of arrangement between the house and sur-
4 J.S. Pray, The Italian Garden, "American Architect and Building News", no. 67 (February and March 1900); M. Azzi
Vi s e nt i n i, The Italian Garden in America, I860s-1920s, [in:] I.B. J a f f e (éd.), The Italian Présence in American Art 1860-1920,
New York-Rome 1992, pp. 240-265; M.Azzi Visentini, La fortuna del giardino italiano negli Stati Uniti tra Otto e Nove-
cento, "Notiziario dell'Associazione Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa", January 2001, pp. 21-46.
5 B. Patzak, Die Renaissance und Barock Vil/en in Italien, vol. 3, Die Villa Imperiale in Pesaro, Leipzig 1908;
W. Friedlânder, Das Casino Pins des Vierten, Kunstgeschichtliche Forschungen, no. 3, Leipzig 1912; D. Gnoli, // giardino
el'antiquario del Cardinal Cesi, "Mitteilungen des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts: Roemische Abteilung" 20 (1905),
pp. 267 276; T. A s h b y, The Villa d'Esté at Tivoli and the Collection of Classical Sculptures which it Contained, "Archaeologia"
61 (1908), no. 1, pp. 219-255; C. Huelsen, Rômische Antikengàrten des XVI Jahrhunderts, "Abhandlungen der Heidelberger
Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosphische-Historische Klasse", 1917, no. 4. The Imperial Villa in Pesaro was the subject of in-
depth critical examination starting with the publication of P. Mancini's monograph in 1843. Before Patzak, it was discussed
by the Germans H. T h o d e ( 1888), F. S e i t z ( 1905) and G. G r o n au (1906); cf. M. A z z i V i s e n t i n i, La villa in Italia. Quat-
trocento e Cinquecento, Milan 1995, with a current bibliography, pp. 342 358; see p. 349 for the Imperial Villa.
MARGIIKRITA AZZI VISF.NTINI
den in the British Isles, discussed by Reginald Blomfield in The Formai Garden in England { \ 892) and Inigo
Triggs in Formai Gardens in England and Scotland (1902), just as Colen Campbell had done in the early
18th century in his Vîtruvius Britannicus (comprising several volumes, the first of which published in 1715).
Campbell reprodueed classic English buildings, juxtaposing them - with nationalistic pride - against those
depicted in the plates from Palladio's / Quattro Libri dell Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), for
which Giacomo Leoni oversaw the first unabridged édition in Italian, French and English, published in instal-
ments between 1716 and 1720 (although the first one is backdated to 1715).
The works cited so far, written mainly by architects and landscape architects, focused above ail on
underscoring the architectural structure and layout of the individual villas and their gardens, whose compo-
sitional principles were suggested as examples for modem landscape architects to follow. However, when
art history was first established as a modem discipline in Germany in the mid-18th century, there also emerged
growing interest in the history of the Italian garden per se, its development and its relationship with other
artistic expressions, i.e. architecture, sculpture and painting.
One of the pioneers in this field was the Berlin scholar Wilhelm Petrus Tuckermann, whose Die Gar-
tenkunst der italienischen Renaissance-Zeit (1884) developed the concepts that Jacob Burckhardt had set
forth in Der Cicerone (1855; The Cicerone, 1873) and Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860; The
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878) and traced the history of the villa garden in Italy, examining
the area around Rome, Tuscany, Genoa, the Lombard lakes (which were transformed into a botanical para-
dise following the introduction of exotic species in the 19th century) and Sicily. This work covers everything
from ancient Rome to the revival of the Italian villa promoted by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the early 19th
century on the banks of the Havel in Potsdam and elsewhere. It also examines factors that influenced its
évolution, from the orographie conformation of the land to climate, which varies widely from one end of
Italy to the other. Tuckermann cited the Cortile del Belvédère and the Villa Madama, both of which in Rome,
as the starting point for a new way of conceiving the relationship not only between interior and exterior and
between buildings and gardens in the villa setting, but also between the villa and the landscape, positing an
argument that, later taken up by James Pray in his article "The Italian Garden" published in 19004, was
unanimously accepted. The book is illustrated with about 60 figures, views and plans taken from old prints
or created specifically for the work, as well as several photographs. It was soon followed by the works of
German art historians Bernhard Patzak on the Imperial Villa in Pesaro (1908) and Walter Friedlânder on the
Casino of Pius IV at the Vatican (1912). Alongside the works of Domenico Gnoli (1905), Thomas Ashby
(1908) and Christian Huelsen (1917) about the collections of ancient statues in the gardens of Rome, thèse
publications immediately became key références5.
In the late 19th century, the appeal of the Italian villa garden also spread across the Atlantic, thanks to
New York artist Charles A. Platt, who took his paintbrushes and camera with him when he accompanied his
brother William to Italy in 1886, in the hopes of dissuading him from the landscaping style he had embraced
at Frederick Law Olmsted's firm. Platt would return to Italy several times. In 1893 he wrote several articles
on the subject that were collected in Italian Gardens, which was published the following year. This work
examines the gardens of 19 villas (15 in Rome and the Roman countryside, the Neapolitan villa of Portici,
Florence's Boboli Gardens and the garden of the Villa di Castello, and the Giusti Garden in Verona) and is
illustrated with Platt's own sketches and photographs, accompanied by texts that are little more than long
captions. Platt's goal was to demonstrate the "évident harmony of arrangement between the house and sur-
4 J.S. Pray, The Italian Garden, "American Architect and Building News", no. 67 (February and March 1900); M. Azzi
Vi s e nt i n i, The Italian Garden in America, I860s-1920s, [in:] I.B. J a f f e (éd.), The Italian Présence in American Art 1860-1920,
New York-Rome 1992, pp. 240-265; M.Azzi Visentini, La fortuna del giardino italiano negli Stati Uniti tra Otto e Nove-
cento, "Notiziario dell'Associazione Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa", January 2001, pp. 21-46.
5 B. Patzak, Die Renaissance und Barock Vil/en in Italien, vol. 3, Die Villa Imperiale in Pesaro, Leipzig 1908;
W. Friedlânder, Das Casino Pins des Vierten, Kunstgeschichtliche Forschungen, no. 3, Leipzig 1912; D. Gnoli, // giardino
el'antiquario del Cardinal Cesi, "Mitteilungen des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts: Roemische Abteilung" 20 (1905),
pp. 267 276; T. A s h b y, The Villa d'Esté at Tivoli and the Collection of Classical Sculptures which it Contained, "Archaeologia"
61 (1908), no. 1, pp. 219-255; C. Huelsen, Rômische Antikengàrten des XVI Jahrhunderts, "Abhandlungen der Heidelberger
Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosphische-Historische Klasse", 1917, no. 4. The Imperial Villa in Pesaro was the subject of in-
depth critical examination starting with the publication of P. Mancini's monograph in 1843. Before Patzak, it was discussed
by the Germans H. T h o d e ( 1888), F. S e i t z ( 1905) and G. G r o n au (1906); cf. M. A z z i V i s e n t i n i, La villa in Italia. Quat-
trocento e Cinquecento, Milan 1995, with a current bibliography, pp. 342 358; see p. 349 for the Imperial Villa.