120 Wonderful Gardens Affecting Western Literature and Art: Muse Gardens

Claude monet, giverny Garden, written in 1902.

This is Monet's own garden, which is full of exotic flowers and grasses.

Monet takes care of the garden every day as if it were a model posing for a portrait. And this garden really nourished the color inspiration of Monet's painting "The Four Seasons of Vegetation", and inspired him to create a masterpiece-water lily, which is deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Claude monet, water lily, 1906.

For Boccaccio, the garden is an ideal place for the story to happen.

In the story of the third day of decameron, he let the young people move into a garden.

Boccaccio himself painted the garden with hard pen and brown paint.

The illustration of giovanni boccaccio's decameron is about 1370.

In the picture, a group of young people are sitting around a lawn full of flowers, and there is a hexagonal fountain pool. Venus sculpture stands above the fountain pool, and four animal-shaped nozzles below are spraying water.

Perhaps you have noticed the important role played by gardens in the above works. In fact, in many other literary and painting works, "garden" is a very important element:

Adam and Eve stole the forbidden fruit, Eugenie Grandet's first love, Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester's touching reunion ... from ancient myths to modern literary masterpieces, many things happened in the garden.

The murals of the ancient city of Pompeii, the swings in Auguste Renoir, Manet's concert in Tuileries Palace ... from the murals of distant ancient cities to the masterpieces of many modern artists, they all depict the scenes in the garden.

Swain, Auguste Renoir, 1876.

So how did the garden enter the vision of the masters of literature and art, and how was it recorded and described by them?

Let's take a look together ~

Estelle plesent-Soler [France]

June 2020

The Beauty of Books-Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press

This garden first appeared in the literary works of Sumerian epic The Forgotten in the 3rd century BC/KLOC-0.

The protagonist of The Forgotten is deeply saddened by the death of his friend En B.W. Kidu and worried about his own fate, so he embarks on a journey to find the mystery of eternal life.

Unearthed in Dur-Sharrukin, Iraq, about 7 10 BC, the gods brought poppies to the tree of life.

At the end of the world, it took him less than "twelve hours" to cross the dark road between sunshine and illuminate the whole world.

The Forgotten finally came to the Gem Garden. The trees in the garden bear no fruit, but they are hung with many kinds of precious stones.

Ancient myths linked gardens with gods through such descriptions. However, the Forgotten did not find any plants in the gem garden that could make him live forever. When he finally found this plant, a snake stole it, forcing the forgotten person to spend his life as a mortal.

In the end, the forgotten magnificent journey only left a "travel record engraved on a stone tablet", which will last forever.

Wonderful gardens and poisonous snakes can't help but remind people of the Garden of Eden in another fairy tale.

This garden can be traced back to Mesopotamia. It is located at the source of four great rivers, including Tigris River and Euphrates River, which irrigate the capital of Assyria. In many ways, the Garden of Eden is very similar to the gardens of ancient Assyria.

Unearthed in Constantinople, heaven.

The God in the Bible story, like the ancient Persian emperor, "strolled in the garden at dawn", planted vegetation and drained ditches.

Such a paradise has attracted future generations to pursue its trail.

Since the legend of Eden was born, it has been closely linked with the forbidden fruit story in the garden.

In the Bible, stealing forbidden fruit is the original sin of human beings. According to St. Augustine, it is also a symbol of salvation for those who bear the original sin. It is precisely because of stealing the forbidden fruit that mankind was driven out of the Garden of Eden, and by converting to the correct faith, mankind will enter the next Garden of Eden in the future.

Original Sin: Adam and Eve stole the fruit of wisdom, 1 143, fresco of Norman Palace in Palermo, Italy.

The image of the sacred Garden of Eden is also a combination of the founding myth and the myth of the origin of life. The original meaning of the word "Eden" in Hebrew is "abundance, joy and pleasure", so we can also interpret the Garden of Eden as "a garden of joy". After that, the holy gardens that God likes are all wonderful places full of fun.

These ancient gardens are not only sacred places full of vitality, but also hot spots of human emotions.

Towering city walls are a major feature of medieval gardens. High walls can isolate the garden from the outside world.

During this period, there were both "seclusion gardens" for seclusion and introspection and "love gardens" for people to seek happiness and love.

In all the "Hortus conchus" in the monastery, all the scenery outside is kept out of bounds, allowing people in the garden to introspect or look up at the sky for enlightenment.

Maitre de la Mazarine, heaven and its springs, 65438+early 5th century.

Saint Bernard believes that the human soul can reach heaven and bliss after leaving the body with the thorns of original sin. But unlike the Garden of Eden, this paradise will not be a paradise lost, but the eternal home of the pious.

This is quite similar to Dante's A Journey to Heaven. In Dante's works, the human soul must pass the test of purgatory before it can enter heaven.

Medieval flowers also have their own symbolic significance: the white iris symbolizes purity and loyalty; The red rose symbolizes the beauty of God-fearing love, holy glory and devotion to Jesus Christ.

These two kinds of flowers often appear in the yard of the Virgin Mary.

Saint Lucia Anonymous, the Virgin in the Rose Garden,15th century.

In the tapestry with the theme of "Lady and Unicorn", nature often appears in poetic form. However, the joy it symbolizes to people's senses is quite close to its own nature. Therefore, "seclusion garden" has become a "love garden" where people seek happiness and love.

"Taste Picking" in the tapestry "Girls Tame Unicorns", 1484- 1500.

In The Legend of Corriere, his partner finis pretended to be dead in order to escape from her husband, and then escaped into a dark tower. After hiding for several months, she came to a garden and appeared in front of Corriere again, hoping to convince him that she had been reborn.

Then the couple poured out their feelings to each other in the garden. Although their feelings were irregular, they survived because they made promises to each other, and their love was quite explicit in legends and stories.

Lovers in the garden, 1490.

And christine de pizan in "Love Poems" is like this reciting the garden of love:

Love is in charge of this beautiful paradise.

Spring in May, violets and roses.

Spring Festival, Lily of the Valley and Lily are in perfect harmony.

Antonio Vivarini, Love Garden, 1465- 1470.

Renaissance marked a revolution in medieval tradition and became the beginning of a later historical chapter.

Although medieval ideas were not adopted by Renaissance artists, the themes of medieval literary works were preserved and inherited by them. The themes of "secluded garden", "love garden" and "emotional agitation" have not disappeared, but unlike the description of gardens in the Middle Ages, Renaissance humanists began to observe natural scenery with their own eyes.

They developed a set of garden architecture on the basis of the real world and carried it forward with their words.

Marlowe later described the kind of temple courtyard built entirely by plants, which marked the gradual transition from medieval garden view to Renaissance thought:

Flowers set each other off in front of the temple

The grass on the valley road is colorful.

Paris, the former shepherd

Ride a horse and flee

Jupiter is here.

For the beautiful scenery.

If Adam and Eve have a letter,

It must be recognized that this is a sign.

……

Francisco del Kossa, Glory of Venus, 1468- 1469.

In Boccaccio's decameron, the medieval cliches were removed, and the small gardens in the countryside began to regain harmony. In the story of the tenth day, the knight Neri de Uberti built a garden on the edge of the mansion to welcome the king in the garden.

The garden gradually changed from a place of love in the Middle Ages to an ideal social place in the Renaissance. People can have optimistic vision and self-esteem in the garden, so the garden has become an ideal country for people.

The poems about gardens sung by Du Belle, Lansard and Dobina reveal the essence of gardening in the Renaissance: humanists stopped working in medieval gardens and sealed their records for later generations to recite.

Estelle plesent-Soler [France]

June 2020

The Beauty of Books-Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press

Baroque gardens inherited the advanced ideas of the Renaissance and pushed them to the extreme to create spectacular wonders, so they became truly elegant art ... Scholars and painters in this period epitomized the beauty of gardens through their own art.

Giacomo Torrelli, Gardens and Villa,17th century.

Louis XIV is a master of garden art, and he can enjoy the exquisite scenery in the garden of Versailles built by himself, even when having a picnic.

Etienne Legland, Louis XIV visited the North Garden of Versailles, 1688.

Abbe de Montigny, the abbot of Montigny, therefore attributed this wonderful feat to the help of the gods, which inspired Madame de Hornoy to write White Cat many years later. This drama, which puts the garden on the stage, deeply describes the influence of power.

Baroque Garden not only concentrates the universe and the world, but also tries to become a discussion field of metaphysics, thus becoming a peaceful place to comfort people.

During this period, the shape of the garden was determined by the precise geometric shape, the fields were arranged through strict calculation, and the partitions in the garden were arranged according to the precise proportion. Therefore, the garden can make the chaos in the world orderly and open up a reassuring small world in it.

Maldives, Jean-Baptiste, overlooking Versailles Castle and Orange Tree Garden from sartori.

Sturm und drang in the Age of Enlightenment

/kloc-In the early 8th century and beyond, British garden art did not pursue neatness and order, but "abandoned topography and planned", starting from the inherent topography of nature, integrating landscape into gardens.

In order to further blur the boundary between nature and garden, British gardeners even removed the barrier of garden, but took the gully that tourists could not touch as the boundary; Or open a path as a boundary, so that visitors can easily walk through the whole garden without appearing abrupt.

However, it should be noted that the landscape garden is still not a real natural scenery, it is still an artificial landscape, but "the gardener begins to write in the dark"

Richard Wilson, overlooking Richmond Garden and Xiyong Village on Temse River,18th century.

This English-style garden is in the same strain as the ideas of the Enlightenment, so it has been a great success.

When Voltaire described his garden, Fairnie Garden, in 1760, he inadvertently reflected the change of the taste of this garden: "The lines drawn with colored flowers are endless, and the garden is divided into four plots along the southeast and northwest, with the house in the middle. Other than that, nothing is planned manually. Thank God. "

Diderot praised the garden at the beginning of Ramo's Nephew: "No matter the weather is good or bad, I am used to going out at 5 pm and taking a walk in the royal garden. I usually go alone and often get lost in thought on the bench in Elkinson. I discuss politics, love, life taste and even philosophy with myself, so that my thoughts can be stirred freely. "

Jean Warnole fragonard, Boulevard, 1773.

Visitors to the English garden think in the garden, which is an ideal picture for philosophers in the Enlightenment. Great thinkers and writers such as Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Goethe, Jane Austen, etc. Thinking about the ideal society in the garden and generating infinite inspiration made the whole enlightenment era advance by leaps and bounds.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, modern gardens are closely related to cities. There are huge public gardens for people to breathe fresh air and have social entertainment, private gardens for people to find happiness and happiness, and impressionist natural gardens full of exotic flowers and grasses, which bring infinite material and color inspiration to artists.

Manet's concert in Tuileries Palace is a work depicting the social function of the park.

Manet, concert at Tuileries Palace, 1862.

Manet not only depicts the natural scenery in this work, but also depicts the different attitudes of all walks of life-the big bourgeoisie wearing top hats, elegant ladies and wet nurses who are busy taking care of young children. These images are common, but they will never be confused.

George Sander recalled the garden of menstruation in his work My Life Story: "The garden is square and the area is very small. But for me at that time, although I had to turn around here 200 times a day, I always felt that it was vast. The layout of the garden seemed fashionable at that time-there were many flowers and vegetables in the garden, which were surrounded by a wall and would never appear in the field of vision. At the end of a sand platform, there is an antique vase with animal patterns on both sides ... "

Henry Lebasque, a child in the garden, 19 14.

It is also in the garden that the author can miss his carefree childhood.

In addition, the rapid development of garden technology and transportation during this period brought together various plants originally produced in other countries, which delighted impressionist painters who were obsessed with color and created a large number of works depicting open-air gardens.

Claude monet, the artist's garden, 1900.

Estelle plesent-Soler [France]

June 2020

The Beauty of Books-Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press

Since ancient civilization, gardens have always been a symbol of harmony between man and nature, and also a source of inspiration for writers and artists.

In this exquisite collection of garden pictures, Estelle Plaisant-Sohler, a French art historian, selected 120 literary classics from the vast literary world, from Homer to French realistic literature. Along with these articles, there are works of art that set each other off. The two echo each other from a distance, and * * * invites readers to wander in the elegant and pleasant garden.

The simplified Chinese version of Muse Garden adopts 16 format, which is more suitable for presenting artistic paintings and feels comfortable. The cover adopts seamless mounting technology, and the main color of moistening moss is green, showing elegance.

The selected inner page paper can perfectly reproduce the colors of famous paintings, and the inner page is printed in spot color and four-color full color, which is extremely ingenious and every detail of the paintings can be clearly seen.

Hardcover with round ridge and double lock pattern, 180 can be read freely, which is not only a good choice for leisure reading, but also a wonderful gift book with elegant mind for beauty lovers.