Femmes et religions : Déesses ou servantes de Dieu ?
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Sous la Manche, le tunnel
The Garden: Visions of Paradise (US title: Paradise on Earth: The Gardens of Western Europe; French: Tous les jardins du monde, lit. 'All the Gardens of the World') is a 1994 illustratedmonograph on gardens and cultural history of gardening. Written by the Franco-Dutch garden designer and landscape architect Gabrielle van Zuylen, and published in pocket format by Éditions Gallimard as the 207th volume in their 'Découvertes' collection[1] (known as 'New Horizons' in the United Kingdom, and 'Abrams Discoveries' in the United States).
The book is part of the Culture et société series (formerly belonging to Art de vivre series) in the 'Découvertes Gallimard' collection. According to the tradition of 'Découvertes', which is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper, as commented in L'Express, 'genuine monographs, published like art books'.[2] It's almost like a 'graphic novel', replete with colour plates.
The book has been reprinted several times, and translated into English (UK & US), Italian, Japanese, Russian, South Korean, Turkish, traditional (Taiwan) and simplified Chinese (China). A new edition came out in 2013, featuring the same cover motif with a colour adjustment.
In a sense of searching for the lost paradise, Van Zuylen traces in the book the history of gardens from Genesis. The history of gardens is as old as that of the world since it is God, they say, who had the idea of creating the first 'green space' on this still arid land where there were neither bushes nor grass, and placed there the man whom he had formed. After the loss of paradise, man has not stopped trying to recreate it artificially ever since. Philosophical, religious, humanist, even licentious, the garden has also had, in its history, a political purpose.[3] On the other hand, the author explains, the garden is for aesthetic delight, purely artistic, in corresponding with the state of creating a painting. A place solely for art and pleasure.[4][5]
Synopsis
This elegantly and beautifully illustrated pocket book deals with the history of Western gardens in a professional way,[6] from antiquity (chap. I, 'The Gardens of Antiquity and the Legacy of Islam': Mesopotamian, Persian, Greek and Roman gardens), medieval Europe (chap. II, 'The Medieval Garden'), Renaissance Italy (chap. III, 'The Gardens of Renaissance Italy'), Classical France (chap. IV, 'Formality Triumphant: The Classic French Garden'), 18th-century England (chap. V, 'Planting Pictures: The English Landscape Garden') up to the modern day (chap. VI, 'From Eclecticism to Modernism': for instance, the Parc André Citroën). The book provides numerous historical documents in its second part—the 'Documents' section—which contains a compilation of excerpts divided into seven parts: 1, The origins of European gardens; 2, Gardens of the Middle Ages; 3, The Renaissance; 4, The royal gardens of France; 5, Art or nature?; 6, The diversity of 20th-century gardening; 7, Gardens of the New World. It closes with a glossary, list of the great European gardens, excerpts from the Florence Charter, further reading, list of illustrations and index.
Van Zuylen explains in the book the origin and meaning of a number of historical terms:[6]
Persian parádeisos: via Alexander the Great the Greeks became familiar with the phenomenon of ornamental garden—the Persian parádeisos—characterised by a watercourse in cross form, the Charbagh.
Genius loci: originally the place dedicated to a local god (a protective spirit), later the specific attributes or special significance of a piece of landscape.
Hortus: with the Romans, originally a place for cultivation of vegetables or fruits, later that is combined with water, trellis work and murals. Currently it means 'garden' as in horticulture.
'The "Mary Garden" (Paradiesgärtlein) by an unknown Rhenish master in the early 15th century is at once an exemplary hortus conclusus and a telling record of late medieval gardening practices.' – The Garden: Visions of Paradise. Excerpted from the caption for the painting found on pp. 40–41 as a double-page spread illustration.
It is natural using French sources in an English garden book, especially with regard to the medieval gardens, such as the frescoes from the Palais des Papes in Avignon and illustrations from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. But the author didn't forget to include some German sources, with Paradiesgärtlein being one of them.
Garden-making, like other art forms, draws on the past as it looks to the future. Tradition and innovation are the warp and weft of its history. A garden design is a visual statement of the relationship among human beings, their natural environment and prevailing cultural values [...] Gardeners around the world share a common goal: to create a retreat, however limited in space or charm, that offers sanctuary from the tensions of modern life, a place where people can once again relate to nature and feel the pulse of our living, growing planet.[7]
Interview
An interview between Van Zuylen and Éditions Gallimard took place on the occasion of the publication of Tous les jardins du monde, the author described that pleasure is the primary purpose of a garden, the gardens have always been called 'pleasure gardens'. There are also three main functions of the garden: the sacred – 'sacred enclosure', the place blessed by gods; the power – the great gardens of Cyrus in Persia were wonderful paradises, but also masterful demonstrations of power; the domestic – the small, useful and popular city gardens.[8]
The Romans were the first to have the aesthetic concern of nature, for them, the garden was the counterpart of architecture. In the Middle Ages, the garden also played a very important role, but in another sense: it was walled, protected from the outside. It was the secret garden, the garden of delights, allegory and theatre of love. The large classical gardens of the monarchy at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles, the gardens à la française. In the eighteenth-century England, on the contrary, with the landscape gardens developed by the large landowners which are far from the court. The garden is truly a mirror, the counterpart of the social, political and artistic history of a civilisation.[8]
Reception
On Babelio, the book has an average of 3.68/5 based on 17 ratings.[9]Goodreads reported, based on 8 ratings, the UK edition gets an average of 4.25 out of 5,[10] and the US edition 3.33/5 based on 3 ratings,[11] indicating 'generally positive opinions'.
In the French magazine L'ŒIL, an anonymous author thinks the book is 'fascinating'.[12]
^Garcia, Daniel (1 November 2005). "L'invention des Découvertes". lexpress.fr (in French). Retrieved 23 November 2020. De véritables monographies, éditées comme des livres d'art.
^Chu, Yu-yi (2018). "私樂園–都會青年藝術家的場所精神" [Personal Eden: The Spirit of Locus of Urban Young Artists]. artemperor.tw (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^Ermeydan, Murat (11 June 2016). "Dünyanın Tüm Park ve Bahçeleri" [All the Parks and Gardens of the World]. plantdergisi.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^Van Zuylen, Gabrielle (1995). "Chapter 6: From Eclecticism to Modernism". The Garden: Visions of Paradise. 'New Horizons' series. Translated by Paris, I. Mark. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 126–127. ISBN9780500300558.
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