Page 21 - Studio International - October1973

Claremont and another at Stowe.
"Switzer, ibid.
"Walpole, Horace, 'History of the Modern Taste
in Gardening', Strawberry Hill, 1771. Quoted
here from its reprinting in Marshall, William,
`Planting and Rural Ornament', Vol. 1. 2nd. ed.
1796, pp. 227-28. Walpole's was the first
comprehensive study of gardening as it related to
18th-century landscape design.
"Switzer, ibid.
"Christopher Hussey attributes the map to Charles
Bridgeman, see ibid, illus. 202.
"See Woodbridge, Kenneth, 'Landscape and
Antiquity,' OUP, 1970 (Stourhead); (Dodsley,
Robert), 'A description of the Leasowes', in
`The Works . . . of William Shenstone,' Vol.! t.
1764, pp. 333-371, (The Leasowes). This applies in
Italian villa gardens as well — for instance, there is
a correct way into the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, 13. View of Praeneste and Venus's Vale
through the gate at the bottom of the garden, not,
as one might expect, through the Villa at the top
of the precipitous hill on which the garden stands.
"Marshall, ibid, p. 228. Price comments on the
`great use of buildings in landscape' as 'that of a
resting place to the eye, on which it may fix and
dwell, and find relief from intricacy, the
indistinctness, and the monotony of mere earth and
vegetation'. 'The Picturesque', Vol. I I. 1798, p. 29o.
"The Villa d'Este gardens were build for the
Cardinal of Ferrara between about 1560 and 1572,
and designed by Pirro Ligorio.
"Added in 1607 after a design by G. B. Albergati,
based upon an ancient Roman sculpture which
stood, in the 16th century, on the Campidoglio, see
Coffin, David R., 'The Villa d'Este at Tivoli',
Princeton University Press, 1960, pp. 27 and 106.
The group is no longer in the villa garden.
"Les paysages des peintures et des reliefs
hellenistique étaient, avant tous, des paysages 14. View from Praeneste over the Cher well
sacrés : la plupart des motifs qui les composaient
et qui, dans des ensembles différents, se
retrouvaient sur tous sont (au moins a l'origine) en
relation avec des formes particulières du culte des
Dieux, des Héros et des Morts. De meme des
I'epoque la mode des parts commence a se
répandre à Rome, nous constatons que l'on dessine
dans les jardin de véritables paysages sacrés, en tous
points comparables a ceux de la peinture,' Grimal,
Pierrre, 'Les Jardin Romains', Presses
Universitaires de France, 1969, p. 301.
The setting of the Temples of the Sibyl and Vesta
with the waterfall of the Anio at Tivoli was
regarded as a 'sacred landscape'. Nearby at the
Villa Adriani was a recreation of the Vale of Temple
based on the sacred valley in Thessaly, and Tempe
was to be reinvoked again, at least in feeling, at the
Leasowes, Hagley and Ermenonville. Such
gardens were laid out in the ars topiaria style of
landscape rather than as a formal garden. The
paintings of Claude and Gaspar were felt to come 15. View from the theatre over the Cherwell
within this tradition, especially since they united
classical buildings and ruins of classical buildings
with natural landscape. Comparisons with such
sacred landscapes, that is temples set in a natural
setting, was certainly intended in Kent's design
for the Elysian Fields at Stowe, and was probably
intended in the views out into Oxfordshire
countryside at Rousham.
At the Villa d'Este, Ligorio may have been
influenced by the way in which the Villa Adriani
(Hadrian's Villa, built 118-38 AD) reproduced
famous localities in this way (Vale of Tempe,
Avernus, the Canopus, etc.) The Fountain of Rome
section of the Villa d'Este where the Horse and
Lion group was situated was a theatrical recreation
of the seven hills of Rome. Only part of this Roma
Antica is still there because part of the terrace
suporting it collapsed in the 19th century.
"Whether such a similar conceit was intended at
Rousham is unlikely, although, just as Tivoli's
Anio flows into the Tiber, so does the Cherwell 7. View of park across the Cherwell
into the Thames.
"Seni, F. S., 'La Villa d'Este in Tivoli', Rome, 1902,
quoted in Coffin, ibid, p. 96.
An excellent surviving example of an Italian-style
terraced garden with extensive views over
countryside is Powis Castle, Montgomeryshire,
made between 1700 and 1730.
"Marshall, ibid, p. 226. According to Walpole, the
ha-ha was probably introduced by Bridgeman, and
Hussey (ibid. p. 36) suggests its final form was
perfected in 1725.
22The origins and meaning of the phrase Terme
=tee' are uncertain. Philip Southcote's Woburn
Farm, near Weybridge, Surrey was sometimes
regarded as the original, described by Thomas
Whately (`Observations on Modern Gardening',
1801, ed. p. 98) as 'possessing a sense of propriety ...
joined to a taste for the simple delights of the
country.' Shenstone's The Leasowes, also referred
to as a Terme ornée`, Whately calls 'a pastoral farm',
that is, the 'opening of the garden to the country'
(ibid. p. 9o) rather as Kent had done at Rousham.
The Leasowes was noted for its views of the
surrounding countryside, and Shenstone planned
his vantage places with great care, then setting
the mood with a suitable seat and inscription.
Whately concludes that the Terme ornée`,' is
`the means of bringing every rural circumstance
within the verge of the garden.'
In a letter to the novelist Graves, in August 1748,
Shenstone further complicates the issue by
distinguishing between what he calls the French
`parque ornée`,' and his own Terme ornée`,', though, he
adds, 'if I had the money, I should hardly confine
myself to such decorations as that name requires,'
(Williams, Marjorie, 'The Letters of William
Shenstone', Blackwell, 1939, p. 156.) I think there
is little doubt that Shenstone's style was cramped
by his pocket. In conclusion, whether Rousham
can be regarded, in part, as a Terme ornée`,' is
simply a question of definition.
"see note 13.
"Venus's Vale is more deeply wooded now than
it was, but it still contains the two cascades, the
higher having a statue of Venus, flanked by two
statues of swans, all of lead, and an inscription
above the arch to an otter hound, drowned in the
Cherwell. The Vale originally had three ponds, two
above the top cascade and the octagon pond
between the two cascades. Only the latter remains.
"Built for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini by Giacomo
della Porta and executed by Maderna between
1598 and 1611. Illustrations 2 and 3, in Steinberg,
Ronald Martin, 'The Iconography of the Teatro
dell 'Aqua at the Villa Aldobrandini', Art
Bulletin, December 1965, Vol. XLVII, no. 4.,
pp. 453-63, give an indication of what the cascades
were, and are, like.
"Marshall, ibid, p. 227. Kent was sometimes
accused of planting for immediate effect rather
than for long-term improvement.
"Townesend's building is so-called after William
Townsend, the Oxford mason-architect, who
executed Kent's design, around 1738.
"Walpole, Horace, 'Visits to Country Seats, July
1760', Walpole Society XVI, 1927-8, p. 26. This
probably replaced a similar, though straighter, rill
in the Charles Bridgeman design.
"For example, see Leonard Knyf's drawing (c.1700)
of Sir William Temple's garden at Moor Park,
Farnham (see Hussey, ibid, illus 3) possibly the
first garden to use winding walks in woods, and the
plans in Switzer's `Ichnographia Rustica'.
"Marshall, ibid, p. 231. Walpole also attributes
Pope's influence to this section of the garden 'in
the opening and retiring shades of Venus's Vale'.
This strengthens Walpole's conviction that Kent's
approach was painterly, and here he is referring
indirectly to that famous quotation from Pope
concerning light and shade in garden structures.
"Completed by Pirro Ligorio, after Bramante's
death in 1514. In one of Ligorio's sketch books in
the Vatican Library is a drawing of a reconstruction
of the Temple of Fortune which he thought was
the Forum of Praeneste: see Masson, Georgina,
`Italian Gardens', Thames and Hudson, 1961, fig. 6i.
32Praeneste was certainly on the Grand Tour.
Addison mentions that it 'stands very high, like
most other Towns in Italy, for the Advantage of
the cool Breezes, for which reasons Virgil calls it
Altum, and Horace Frigidum Praeneste'. He also
comments on the 'Fragments of this ancient Temple'
(`Remarks on Several Parts of Italy etc. in Years
1701, 1702, 1703,' ed. 1733, p. 216). Although its full
excavation has only followed bombing at the end
of the war, a good deal was known, and surmised,
about it from the Renaissance onwards.
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