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1、. IntroductionI studied, in this short thesis, mainly about the English garden; its historical background, its process of formation, its aesthetical garden theory and its function over the progress of English society. From those who had exerted influence over garden theory through their thoughts and
2、 ideas, we can get a basic understanding of the interrelationship between garden arts and poetic arts, and of course fine arts, specifically paintings. For it was always those who had achieved accomplishments in other artistic areas that made great efforts to facilitate the emergence of new garden s
3、tyles and fresh garden theory, thus pushing forward the development of the garden as art. I want to attach importance to the philosophical thoughts reflected in garden design which was synchronized with the history of European thoughts, with neo-Platonism and rationalism, widely accepted first in th
4、e renaissance period but later replaced by romanticism, and its coexistence, namely, empiricism, which had the same aesthetic pursuing. Respectively, they are the philosophical foundation for geometrical gardens and natural gardens. The English Garden, an important aspect of English culture and soci
5、ety, owns its unique characteristic formed within its prolonged history over several hundreds of years. It has exerted profound influence over the lifestyle of the English man, especially the upper-class, and, to be exact, the spirit of nobility, of their custom and rustic tendency. Brief Introducti
6、on to English Garden History2.1 Timeline of the European Garden The history of the European garden can be traced back to ancient Greece. Gardens built then were only imitations of farmland or natural land modified and changed by human beings. They were designed into symmetrical patterns and conforme
7、d tightly to the geometrical theory which was the mainstream of garden designing for 2000 years. The primary representatives of the western style garden were ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek gardens, in which water and evergreen plants were the major components. They laid the foundation for the re
8、suscitation of the Italian terrace garden in the 15th and 16th centuries. With the invasion of Islamic power in the 8th century, Islamic style gardens entered into European garden design which could be seen in the gardens of Spain. To be the source of inspiration and an important symbol of art, stre
9、ams in the pattern of the Christian Holy cross could always be found in gardens of Spain. They were delicate in tile decoration and layout. The Islamic style garden exerted great influence over European gardens later. Europe, in the middle ages, was a continent plagued with restlessness and conflict
10、, the most attractive world then was paradise and people flocked in droves to become monks. The predominant styles of gardens at the time were castle gardens and abbey gardens, which were first used in daily life but changed later into a recreational place with the development of society. With the a
11、ppearance of the renaissance in Italy, the taste of mainstream society changed into enjoying and appreciating true natural scenery. With the rustic garden being so popular then, people wanted to get rid of the old tradition of geometric pattern gardens. Baroque gardens with elegant curvature could b
12、e found at that time. In the time of Louis XIV in the 17th century, the formal garden had reached a height that could never be surpassed. There were then associations of ingenious artists, and an enthusiastic ruler with unlimited powers to promote these skills. It followed that the garden art grew t
13、o its utmost height, and became an organic thing.Examples of the great artists of this time included the greatest French garden and landscape designer Andre Le Notre who followed his father as prime gardener at the Jardin des Tuilleries in Paris and also studied refined art in Paris. The parks which
14、 Le Notre designed at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles were supreme examples of the French seventeenth century style of garden design. Le Notre also projected the central axis of the Tuileries, which became the grand axis of Paris running to the Arc de Triomphe and La Defense. The designer enjoyed a w
15、arm relationship with his patron Louis XIV. Both were men of taste with a passion for gardens and architecture. The baroque style of garden design, which they brought to a crescendo, became widely influential in Europe and beyond to the wider world. Every prince and potentate dreamed of owning a gar
16、den which would outshine Versailles. This ambition resulted in vast works, though few were executed with a fraction of Le Notres excellent design judgment. The 19th and 20th century was the time when the modern style garden developed and reached its climax. The characteristic of the modern garden is
17、 its function of publicity and recreation. Along with the revolution undergoing in European countries and America, many previous imperial gardens changed themselves into public gardens. America is a disciple of the theory that the garden should be conformed to the interest of the masses. Many large-
18、scale gardens and parks have been constructed in America, with less inheritance of their continental ancestor, so they represented a new wave of style in garden design theory. 2.2 The Evolution of the English GardenEngland, an island country in the north Atlantic, is constituted of a number of islan
19、ds with Great Britain being the major landmass. Since historical times, England, where the earliest inhabitants were Celts, has been conquered three times. It was conquered by the Romans, the Anglo Saxons and the Normans. The Anglo Saxons brought to England the Germanic language and culture, while t
20、he Normans brought a fresh wave of Mediterranean civilization, which includes Greek culture, Roman law, and the Christian religion. It is the cultural influences of these two conquests that provided the source for the rise and development of the English garden. The climate on these islands is warm a
21、nd damp. The natural condition is so favorable for the growing of plants and vegetables, with the forest area accounting for just one tenth of the total area, 20 percent of the land is still being used as farmland today. The most common scenery in England is mild slopes and isolated trees. Living am
22、ongst such beautiful natural scenery, English men tended to favor gardens and horticulture. English land owners owned large areas which was a favorable condition that permitted them building gardens comparable with those owned by imperial families. On the other hand, these gardens, always luxurious
23、and flamboyant, were the symbol and embodiment of the social class and wealth owned by their noble master. Designed by their own mind and aesthetical understanding, they built their own paradise combined with indigenous natural conditions. These two distinctive features of English gardens will be ta
24、lked of in the following section. 2.2.1 Regular Design of Gardens since the Renaissance Under the influence of the European continent during the Renaissance period in the 11th century, the mainstream English garden design was symmetrical and geometrical patterns. The most famous large-scale garden t
25、hen was the Hampton court, located 20 kilometers north of London. Before the completion of the Hampton court, English men never had an idea to build a garden outdoors. The earliest owner of this garden was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey who built this garden for his health and longevity. Completed in 1516,
26、this garden was quite delicate for its decoration and layout in details. On a triangle shaped piece of land southwest of his castle, Wolsy held many meeting and parties, especially costume balls, a favorite party of the king, Henry VIII. The beauty of the garden aroused the attention of King Henry V
27、III who successfully seized the property rights of this garden after the death of Wolsy. He restructured the Hampton court later. However, the English garden at that time embodied less unique characteristics than its continental counterparts. The English gardens were just imitating the mainstream pa
28、ttern of garden design which had already reached its climax in France. One of the reasons that accounted for this phenomenon was the relatively late appearance of the fashionable building outside a large scale garden, and the secondary reason could be found in English mens different understanding of
29、 the classical Greek-Latin culture. The most distinctive feature of the English garden is its vast territory of flower beds which submerged into grassland without an apparent break, and the bright and lively color of flowers that could be seen in sharp contrast against the gloomy sky and gray fog, w
30、hich charaterized England weather. 2.2.2 Natural Garden DesignThere was a duality in garden design during the 1670s and 1820s. In one aspect, the regular patterns of gardens was still popular in England, many gardens adopted plant sculpture as the main decoration. On the other hand, there emerged th
31、e bud of natural gardens which can be seen from the products of Bridgman, the first garden designer who wanted to integrate the regularity with natural patterns. He also adopted “ha-ha”, a kind of invisible fence, replacing plant sculptures and visible fences in his effort to integrate the garden wi
32、th its surroundings. This represented a significant step towards the natural garden.The first garden designer who had accomplished the real natural garden was Kent who imparted garden with his emotion through intelligent design and layout. Holding the concept of “nature dislikes a straight-line”、Ken
33、t abandoned all the elements which he used in previous regular garden design and adopted all the quintessence of the natural world to be the decoration of his garden. Whats more, Kent found that the entire natural world was a delicate garden itself and arranged his garden in the way which a painter
34、would do so on his canvas. As a student and partner of Kent, Lancelot Brown went further than Kent on the way towards the natural garden. Unlike Kent, who pursued variety and the wild, Brown tried to change the garden to be more simple and compact, resembling a farmland. Brown made so many new garde
35、ns and reformed the previous garden completely. It was thought that the real masterpiece by Brown was the whole island of England, with its south and north part turned into a vast natural scenery garden. Someone even joked that he would like to die before Brown to see paradise without Browns modific
36、ation. Brown had an opponent and critic, William Chambers, who advocated for the picturesque garden. He designed his garden with buildings of different styles to create a taste of romanticism. The long simmered dispute pitted the natural style garden, with Brown as the representative, against the pi
37、cturesque style garden of Richard Payne Knight, an art commentator, lasted for more than one hundred years. The former advocated that the garden should be natural and simple without any artificial materials but the latter supported the idea that the garden, analogous to a painting, should be embodim
38、ent of aesthetical theory. . Artistic Features of the English garden3.1 Persons of Influence over the English Garden and Their Thoughts3.1.1 Persons of Influence over the Regulation GardensJohn Rose was sent to Paris to learn garden design and took part in the construction of the Hampton court after
39、 he came back. He made contributions to the popularity of the geometrical pattern garden in England.As disciple of John Rose, George Loudon and Henri Wise were the advocators of the natural garden but they also constructed symmetrical style gardens. They were enthusiastic in reforming the previous g
40、ardens in England and building new ones. They translated some books concerning the garden construction of the French style. 3.1.2 Persons of Influence over Natural GardensWilliam Temple (1628-1699), a politician in the 17th century, had exerted great influence with his thoughts and writings on desig
41、ning theory. His book Upon the Garden of Epicurus, was published in 1685 and contained many chapters concerning the theory of the Chinese garden, news of which was brought back by seaman and missionaries who had experience in China. Through this indirect information, Temple learned some sketchy know
42、ledge about Chinese natural gardens, which was his favored style. In his book Upon the Garden of Epicurus, he expressed his regret towards the predominant garden style of gthe eometric garden in England. After a thorough scanning of the history of the English garden, he said that Englishmen were unf
43、ortunate in their lack of knowledge of excellent garden designingi.e. the natural garden. The geometric pattern garden, its straightness, its regulation, orderliness of the layout, the trimmed shape of plants, all of these combined, constituted the main part of the English garden but was thought to
44、be simple enough for a child in China. The real beauty, Temple alleged, was real nature, the unstained pure natural world, primitive natural beauty. Temple thought that the largest achievement of the Chinese garden was its creation of an irregular style in garden design.The earliest person who had e
45、xerted substantial influence over English natural garden design was Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury III (1671-1713), a politician and philosopher, who under the influence of Plato, highly praised the unstained natural world. Compared with the regular garden, he believed that natural scenery, when
46、observing a harsh stone or a cave covered by moss or a waterfall is far more attractive than the imperial palace. Combined with his praise of nature in his essay and writing, his book was distributed widely on the European continent. He is thought to be an important promoter of the English natural g
47、arden theory.Joseph Addison was a writer, poet, dramatist and politician. It was Addison who actually laid the foundation of the theory of the English natural garden. In his work, An Essay on the Pleasure of the Garden, he warmly praised the majesty and magnificence of natural scenery. The principle
48、 of the garden is, according to Addison, approaching real nature as far as you can. The garden can be a masterpiece only by imitating the real world and merging into its surrounding.Alexander Pope, a famous satiric poet as well as a garden theorist is the first one to give a comprehensive descriptio
49、n of the natural garden theory. His essay on Verdant Sculpture criticized deeply the history of tree trimming, a skill matured in Roman history, which, according to Pope, was not suitable for the natural geographical conditions in England. He made many famous statements about his favor of the natural world such as: In all, let nature never be forgotten. In all, Pope, as a literary writer, has made a substantial contribution promoting the natural garden theory in history. From this we can see th
