From bosquet a l'angloise to jardin a l'angloiseThe progression of the mingled manner of planting from its inception to its decline andsurvival

摘要

Older histories on the making of gardens often presented the creation of landscape gardens as having been inspired by painters such as Salvator Rosa, the Poussins, and Claude Lorrain.1 The landscapes in their paintings were said to have been inspiredby 'Aristotle's conception of nature as an immanent force working in the refractory medium of matter, towards a central generalized form, but invariably deflected from this ideal form by "accident"'. In this nature was perfected, with Claude selecting and compounding aspects that were 'calm and idyllic', and Salvator those that accentuated 'the wildness and fierceness of nature'.2 Additionally there were signs of human activity in the presence of shepherds with their flocks or cattle, and classical buildings or ruins. In short these landscapes were comprised of shaggy overgrown classical landscapes. A brief analysis of historic landscape gardens suggests that many were indeed inspired by such classical landscapes in the way they were composed and the features they contained. What is less clear is whether such vision of 'wildness and fierceness of nature' was carried through in the design of planting, whether gardeners responded to this in the maintenance of planted features; indeed how they influencedthe appearance, as well as style/fashion of the gardens by what they did. In this light the balance of conventional histories of the landscape garden and picturesque style is redressed by placing emphasis on planting.