Ornamenting A Classical Landscape

by Leslie McGuire, managing editor

Proler Garden Antiques custom hand-carved this five-foot in diameter Giallo Asia marble fountain in Italy after a design of one of the fountains at Versailles.

A garden is essentially an outdoor room that has an experiential dimension, a social dimension, an ethical dimension, a spiritual dimension and a mythological dimension. The pure symmetry of a classical garden has always been softened, or made whimsical and brought back to the human realm by the judicious use of landscape details.

In order to differentiate a decorative planting space from a utilitarian garden area, sculpted planters provide transitional spots of green in a field of stone. This English composition stone Campana form urn is decorated with a foliate swag and supported by a decorative socle.

Ornamental elements can be lamp posts, gazebos, bridges, paving designs, gateway entrances, benches, curving balustrades, or art. The use of the term ?EUR??,,????'??landscape detail?EUR??,,????'?? in this context is as an artifact, rather than as a drawing. The mathematical precision of a classical landscape design, while it points to a control over nature on the one hand, then creates a perfect foil for the addition of creative elements that mirror the natural forms the Landscape Architect has just controlled so effectively.

Statues were first placed in ancient sacred groves, and then later placed in ancient European gardens up until the 19th and early 20th centuries. This beautifully weathered Mid-19th century English stone figure of Hebe, a cup bearer to the gods, was done by the famous London sculptors, Austin and Seeley.

Sculptures intended for outdoor spaces provide character and add the needed cohesiveness to the landscape. With their organic forms, these artifacts animate a setting. In the context of history, a garden is an enclosed outdoor space, regardless of its size. A walled-in area was meant to protect cultivated plants, domesticated animals and people. But in ancient times, people also wanted to bring inside their walls the elements of their sacred groves, hence the statuary they chose to enliven their gardens.

A late 19th century French bronze figural group of a maiden with an admiring Pan at her feet is a perfect evocation of the ancient belief that human-like Gods intervened in the affairs of everyday life.

Aesthetic gardens not only protect however, they also, like other works of art, provide intellectual and spiritual rewards. The spiritual world has always been a great part of what the artist brings to garden design and has been for thousands of years. There were very strong religious aspects behind the earliest gardens, which were enclosed temple compounds in Ancient Egypt, and Mesopotamia, as well as religious enclosures in ancient Christian and Islamic gardens, Chinese and Japanese meditative gardens, and especially Roman gardens where religion was more centered around the home.

The pure symmetry of this balanced, mathematical design leading to a clear ocean view is softened by the ornate curls of the wrought iron section of fencing. The view itself is further controlled by the Sunset Belvedere, which creates a frame within the larger picture.

The mathematical emphasis of classical Roman gardens was derived from studying newly found philosophical works by Plato, and more importantly by Pythagorus, who originated the thought that ?EUR??,,????'??all things are mathematical.?EUR??,,????'?? Plato?EUR??,,????'???s works and Pythagorean theories were studied anew during the Renaissance, and Lorenzo de Medici founded a Platonic Academy in his garden at Carregi, outside Florence. Ultimately, that had a great impact on garden design. The humanists of the day came to the conclusion that Greek and Roman architecture was based on mathematical proportions and thus, Neoplatonic designers began creating worlds of ordered beauty. The ?EUR??,,????'??Cartesian?EUR??,,????'?? gardens of the Renaissance clearly show this love of balanced relationships and Pythagorean harmonic proportion in their landscaping as well.

The meeting of scholars in Cosimo de Medici?EUR??,,????'???s garden in 1439 established that mathematics and geometrical patterns?EUR??,,????'??+as seen in this landscape?EUR??,,????'??+were fundamental to the Neoplatonic ideal for integrating buildings and gardens.

Conceived in the tradition of an Italianate hillside villa, the classical gardens of this home overlooking Santa Monica Bay were designed by Todd P. Bennitt, of Bennitt + Mitchell, Landscape Architecture, to complement and complete the Renaissance theme of the house. The gardens are view oriented and linked to the architectural composition and orientation. Balancing the Pythagorean harmony and mathematical precision of the walkways, are colonnaded peristyle courts, balustraded walls and terraced retaining walls, which handle the slopes leading down to the edge of the cliff. The steep hillside conditions meant the gardens had to be terraced to create dramatic view sequences and strongly defined outdoor rooms. The spaces include the entry, the hillside forest, the motorcourt, the entry forecourt, the library terrace garden, the herb garden, the sculpture and rose terrace and the great lawn.

?EUR??,,????'??This kind of colonnade is called among the Greeks xystus because athletes during the winter season, exercise in covered running tracks?EUR??,,????'???The xystus ought to be so constructed that there may be plantations between two colonnades, or groves of plane trees, with walks laid out among them among the trees and resting places there, made of opus signinum [i.e.paved].?EUR??,,????'??
?EUR??,,????'??+Vitruvius, De Architecture Libri Decem, c. 27 BC

Materials utilized are traditional natural stone including granite, cobbles, sandstone and antique limestone. The plant materials include pines, Italian cypress, Canary Island palms and extensive hedging materials such as boxwood and myrtle. The garden statues and the pavilion, including the Wisteria Pavilion and the Sunset Belvedere are architecturally integrated and extend the architectural vernacular to the surrounding gardens. Water features include the antique motor court fountain, the forecourt wall cascade and the library water runnel and lily pond. The herb garden features a stone pizza oven as well as outdoor kitchen facilities.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God?EUR??,,????'???s Heart in a garden
Than anywhere elseon earth.
?EUR??,,????'??+Dorothy Frances Gurney, A Little Book of Quiet, London: Country Life and George Newnes, 1915

With its exquisite view of the ocean and the horizon, are a collection of carefully placed statues, fountains and urns either created for the setting, or 19th century copies of Greek and Roman statuary found in Europe by Proler Garden Antiques, Inc. (garden-antiques.com). Descending a pine shaded drive, a circular cobbled court is graced with a large circular fountain surrounded by Canary Island palms. The gardens include a naturalized hillside, a terraced garden, rose and herb gardens and the entire estate is surrounded by a magnificently proportioned great lawn with its exquisite view of the ocean and the horizon, and the collection of carefully placed statues, fountains, pediments, finials and urns. These features are seamlessly integrated into the villa composition.