DOI Heft:
No. 109 (April, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Pantini, Romualdo: Italy's private gardens
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0194
Italy s Private Gardens
this is a charm to those who have been dispirited T TALY'S PRIVATE GARDENS. BY
by that sacrifice of invention to an imitative display I DR. ROMUALDO PANTINI.
of excellent mechanism that detracts from the
educational value of the Royal School of Art ■*■ The period in which the Italian spirit,
Needlework in London. " Drink waters out of after a lethargy lasting nearly a thousand years,
thine own cistern," says Solomon, "and running awoke and resumed all its old energy and know-
waters out of thine own well." ledge was undoubtedly that of the Quattrocento.
To gather from fine specimens of ancient work all As the artist's hand grew more expert at tracing
the craft-knowledge that they have to teach—this, the forms and expressing the feelings of mankind,
to be sure, is an excellent thing to do ; but so the humbler worshippers of divine nature
that knowledge is not art ; to become art it turned to the plant-world, therefrom to derive
must be shown (as often as possible) in fresh new and varied forms of decoration, such as should
inventions, in new enthusiasms. Declining crafts satisfy both the purely spiritual and the material
cannot be revived by a mere imitation of their necessities of the time, and revive, even amid the
ancient processes. Most of the schools of needle- tumult of wars and internal sedition, the ancient
work fail to realise this fact. They follow the past spirit of grandeur by means of opulent gardens,
as dependents, they do not lead the present with I have thought it well to advance these general
an alert invention enriched with acquired know- considerations, because one constantly finds en-
ledge. And for this reason we have to turn to dorsed in recent French works the opinion of
the work done in Liverpool, in Glasgow, and in Burckhardt that the private houses of the Italian
other art schools, if we wish to think of to- Renaissance period were built as they were " be-
day's embroidery as a thing that lives and cause the love of fresh air was so great that people
grows, and therefore of greater interest and value preferred to expose themselves to the risks of war-
than a display of archaeology in patterns and in fare by living out of doors than to remain in safety
stitches. behind city walls." There were other reasons
" VIEW OF THE CITY OF FLORENCE FROM THE TERRACE OF THE VILLA FABBRICOTTI " PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI
181
this is a charm to those who have been dispirited T TALY'S PRIVATE GARDENS. BY
by that sacrifice of invention to an imitative display I DR. ROMUALDO PANTINI.
of excellent mechanism that detracts from the
educational value of the Royal School of Art ■*■ The period in which the Italian spirit,
Needlework in London. " Drink waters out of after a lethargy lasting nearly a thousand years,
thine own cistern," says Solomon, "and running awoke and resumed all its old energy and know-
waters out of thine own well." ledge was undoubtedly that of the Quattrocento.
To gather from fine specimens of ancient work all As the artist's hand grew more expert at tracing
the craft-knowledge that they have to teach—this, the forms and expressing the feelings of mankind,
to be sure, is an excellent thing to do ; but so the humbler worshippers of divine nature
that knowledge is not art ; to become art it turned to the plant-world, therefrom to derive
must be shown (as often as possible) in fresh new and varied forms of decoration, such as should
inventions, in new enthusiasms. Declining crafts satisfy both the purely spiritual and the material
cannot be revived by a mere imitation of their necessities of the time, and revive, even amid the
ancient processes. Most of the schools of needle- tumult of wars and internal sedition, the ancient
work fail to realise this fact. They follow the past spirit of grandeur by means of opulent gardens,
as dependents, they do not lead the present with I have thought it well to advance these general
an alert invention enriched with acquired know- considerations, because one constantly finds en-
ledge. And for this reason we have to turn to dorsed in recent French works the opinion of
the work done in Liverpool, in Glasgow, and in Burckhardt that the private houses of the Italian
other art schools, if we wish to think of to- Renaissance period were built as they were " be-
day's embroidery as a thing that lives and cause the love of fresh air was so great that people
grows, and therefore of greater interest and value preferred to expose themselves to the risks of war-
than a display of archaeology in patterns and in fare by living out of doors than to remain in safety
stitches. behind city walls." There were other reasons
" VIEW OF THE CITY OF FLORENCE FROM THE TERRACE OF THE VILLA FABBRICOTTI " PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI
181