Blog #7 The Role of Art in Society- Gardens as an Art form

The role of Art in Society
Blog #7
Art takes so many different forms: paintings –(with oil, acrylic, pastels, watercolor) on canvas, wood board, plaster, or paper. There is sculpture (clay, bronze, steel, stone, glass, mixed media) , architecture, printing, graphic arts, and line drawings. Now we see photography, videos, and animation in the field of arts. Out of all of this diversity, I would like to focus in on the Garden as Art form and the role it plays in society.

All throughout history you will find examples of gardens, starting with the story in Christian biblical text of the Garden of Eden. Gardens have been portraits as places of peace, abundance, life, solitude, romance and spiritual rejuvenation. Looking back over 5 chapters in our book, you can find many examples of gardens. In Botticelli’s Primavera, the garden is rich in the colors of spring, illustrating the name of the painting. In Bellini’s St Francis in Ecstasy, the small garden around his austere cave setting is the touchstone for St Francis communion with God. Moving forward into Renaissance art, the Grotto became a popular feature of gardens of this time. Michelangelo contributed to this tradition by creating the 4 marble slaves that adorn the Great Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Pitti Palace, Florence. The function of the grotto was to commune with nymphs and Muses, cool off in the summer heat and be surrounded by the sound of water as it splashed over fountains and between the rock and stonework of the grotto.

In paintings, gardens are a popular feature. Look, for example, at Rubens Garden of Love, or Fragonard’s The Meeting. Both paintings use a garden as the backdrop to a romantic love encounter. The garden sets the mood for the romance that ensues.

The Gardens’ layout changes over time with the different periods in art. In the Baroque period, the garden layout became a geometric masterpiece. Look at the exquisitely complex layout for the Palais de Versailles by Le Vau and Le Notre. This plan inspired generations of landscape architects. The gardens in the time of Louis XV were a place for political and economic discussions and alliances to be brokered and discussed. The many passageways led to quiet, out of the way niches where one could meet and plan the future, discuss the past, ponder new scientific creations, or cheat on your current relationship. In The Park at Stourhead, Wiltshire, England, the layout is on the other end of the spectrum from the Palais de Versailles. Here, order and linear structure give way to meandering paths, hide and reveal “peak a boo” views of a variety of buildings, sculptures and temples, rivers and ponds and a blending of art styles from Greek, to Chinese, to Turkish to Gothic, and throwing in a bit of landscape painter Claude Lorraine for good measure!

All over the world, you can find beautiful gardens that inspire us even today. In India, the geometric beauty of the gardens at the Taj Mahal are breathtaking. In Outside of Shanghai, you can delight in the beauty and tranquility of the Garden of the Cessation of Official Life, and be thankful that one Beijing official got sick and tired of working in his bureaucratic job without promotion- and instead devoted himself to the creation of this garden. In Kyoto, Japan, you can have a Zen experience by contemplating the placement of stones in the rock garden Ryoan-Ji. Though very different in look from the classical Baroque gardens of France, they have a similarly calming effect on the beholder.

My favorite recent garden discoveries are the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park, and the Portland Classical Chinese Gardens, both in Portland, Oregon. In the Japanese Gardens, you see the 3 primary elements used in design, Stone (the bones of the landscape), Water (the life force) and Plants (the tapestry of the four seasons). Visitors are asked to discard worldly thoughts and to see oneself as part of the universe. The mission of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden is to cultivate an oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony. The five elements of a Chinese garden are plants, stone, water, architecture and poetry.

All over the world we can find gardens, beautiful expressions of art, that serve society by providing a place for communion with nature, a place to gain peace and tranquility and to instill a sense of awe. Gardens are generally free to the observer to enjoy and can be enjoyed all times of the day and night, 360 days of the year. They provide a place that any person can go and connect with art, the world and themselves. Gardens provide a very important role in our society.