Characteristics of the artistic culture of the Middle Ages. Features of a medieval garden: changes in functions and purposes, symbolic and miniature character, originality of decorative elements. Garden and book in the Middle Ages. “Flowers” of St. Francis of Assisi.
Three types of medieval gardens: monastic; Moorish and feudal.
Monastery gardens - their layout and main features. Symbolism of the monastery garden. Typology of monastery gardens: orchards, vegetable gardens, flower gardens for church services, apothecary gardens. Vertograd is a decorative monastery garden.
Italy is the ancestor of monastic and botanical gardens. Gardens of the Benedictine Order, elements of Roman gardening art: symmetry, priority of utilitarian function. The monastery-palace character of the gardens under Charlemagne (768-814). Garden of the Gallen monastery (Switzerland, 820). Monastery gardens of France, England.
Literary monuments of medieval gardening. Albert of Bolshtead (1193-1280) and his treatise on gardening.
Topic 14. Gardens and parks of the Middle Ages - Moorish and feudal gardens
Moorish gardens (patios), their origin, specific features and decorative elements. Types of Moorish gardens: internal and external. Ensembles in Granada, Toledo, Cardova (XI - XIII centuries). Alhambra is a miracle of Spanish-Moorish architecture. Alhambra Gardens: Myrtle Garden, Lion Garden, etc. Alcazar Ensemble in Seville.
Feudal gardens - gardens of castles and fortresses. Kremlin garden of Frederick II (1215-1258) in Nuremberg. Gardens of the Fortress Palace in Budapest. Rosengartens. French Royal Gardens of the 15th century. “The garden is an earthly paradise” (Dante’s “Divine Comedy”).
City gardens of the pre-Medicine era. The emergence and development of Botanical Gardens: 1525 - Pisa Botanical Garden - the first in Europe; Botanical gardens in Padua (1545), Bologna, Florence, Rome; 1597 - the first botanical garden in France; in Germany in Leiden (1577), in Wurzburg (1578), in Leipzig (1579).
Classification of gardening as a “liberal arts” (1415, Germany, Ausburg). Fugger Garden (Germany). Nuremberg Gardens. Creation of the crowned “Floral Order” (1644, Germany).
Transforming a utilitarian garden into a “funny” one. Gardens of the late Middle Ages. “Gardens of love” and “gardens of pleasures”. Vegetation and decoration of gardens. Garden life. Boccaccio "Decameron".
The transition from the gardens of the Middle Ages to the gardens of the Renaissance.
Topic 15. Landscape art of the Renaissance in Italy.
Renaissance culture. Nature in the literature and philosophy of the Renaissance. The concept of nature in L. Alberti’s treatise “On Painting”. Landscape in Italian Renaissance poetry. Nature in Italian utopias of the late Renaissance. The concept of “Natura” in the worldview of F. Petrarch.
Three stages in the development of Italian gardens: XIV - XV centuries - gardens of the early Renaissance (Florentine period); XV - late XVI centuries - Roman period; XVI - XVII centuries - Baroque gardens.
Types of Italian gardens: a). terraced; b). educational; V). medical; G). palace gardens; d). villa gardens; e). botanical.
Florentine gardens of the early Renaissance, their compositional structure. Planning unity of garden compositions, creation of “ideal” nature. Villa Careggi (1430 - 1462, architect Micolozzo).
XV - XVI centuries - the century of medical culture. Medical gardens, their characteristics. Gardens at the villas Lante, Borghese, Albani, Madama and others. Villa Medici in Fiesollo (1457). Humanistic traditions of ancient Rome. Connection of an educational institution and a garden. Italian societies. Florentine Platonic Academy (1459). Sal San Marco is an academy and museum of ancient sculpture.
Garden of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli (16th century), architect Pirro Ligorio. Its layout, basic artistic and compositional techniques. Villa d'Este is a masterpiece of landscape gardening art of the Renaissance, its distinctive features: the completeness of each individual plot and the integrity of the overall composition; thoughtful consistency and variety of perception.
Characteristic features of Renaissance gardens: a new appeal to antiquity; secularization of the symbolic-allegorical system of landscape art; expansion of the architectural side of the gardens. Lightness and historicity of the symbolism of Renaissance gardens. Unity of gardens and natural landscape.
16th century - gardening of the popes. Strengthening the pomp and intellectual element in Renaissance gardening art. Belvedere Courtyard.
Spring is the time for the opening of the dacha season. For gardeners and vegetable gardeners these days, gardening and vegetable gardening goods are in high demand, and, having purchased the necessary equipment, summer residents go to their garden plots. Today it is fashionable to landscape areas in style - plant exotic plants, erect sculptures, dig artificial reservoirs. However, few people know that in the Middle Ages, gardens were real works of art.
Medieval gardens
In the Middle Ages, the work of a gardener was likened to the work of a book writer. It was believed that the garden should be read like a book, benefiting from it.
As a rule, gardens in the Middle Ages were laid out in monasteries and castles. At that time, flowers and some fruits could only be found there. The monastery courtyard was built in accordance with a strict plan and included a garden, a vegetable garden with even rectangular beds, and sometimes a pond was built for growing fish. Such an ensemble was called the courtyard of paradise. In the Garden of Eden, fenced off from prying eyes, they grew ornamental plants, medicinal herbs and fruit bushes.
Many decorative techniques in the Middle Ages were borrowed from antiquity. The principle of regularity dominated both architectural compositions and the arrangement of green spaces. Sculptures, fountains, cascades, baskets and grottoes played an important role in the design of the gardens.
The construction of gardens and parks in Italy was influenced by the work of such masters as Bramante, Raphael and Palladio.
Gardens and villas at that time formed a single ensemble. One of the most famous architectural and park works of the Renaissance was the Villa Madama. Giulio Medici chose a picturesque hillside overlooking Rome for this villa. The initial design of the villa was prepared by Rafael Santi. Despite the complex landscape, the famous architect harmoniously surrounded the villa with a terraced garden.
Another masterpiece of that time is Villa Fornese. The architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola accurately calculated the proportions of the Fornese garden and was able to make advantageous use of the natural topography of the area.
In that era, Italy inspired creative searches in other countries as well. European countries. Thus, in France, under Italian influence, the Fontainebleau Gardens were created near the Royal Palace in the 16th century, and the Luxembourg Garden near the Luxembourg Palace was created at the beginning of the 17th century.
Apothecary gardens of the Middle Ages and their further development (question No. 17).
The term "apothecary garden" is narrow, it implies a garden or small vegetable garden for growing medicinal plants, for a specific pharmacy. The first mention of apothecary gardens in Europe dates back to the Middle Ages. Monasteries at that time enjoyed universal fame and respect, and were, perhaps, the only place where they provided medical care, both monks and pilgrims, so it was simply impossible to do without temple medicinal gardens. The cultivation of medicinal plants became an important concern of medieval gardeners. The apothecary garden was usually located in patios, next to the doctor’s house, monastery hospital or almshouse.
In addition to the most common plants that have emetics, laxatives, bactericidal, etc. properties, a considerable part of the cultivated plants could be occupied by plants with psychotropic, intoxicating and narcotic effects (which were then accepted as manifestations of supernatural forces), since the mystical component of the healing process, that is, special rituals, was still of very great, if not dominant, importance.
The creation of medicinal gardens was also encouraged by Charlemagne (742-814). Evidence of how much attention was paid to gardens in the Middle Ages is the rescript of 812, by which Charlemagne ordered those plants that should be planted in his gardens. The rescript contained a list of about sixty names of medicinal and ornamental plants. This list was copied and then distributed to monasteries throughout Europe.
Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen (or St. Gallen) Garden in Switzerland was especially famous, where medicinal plants and vegetable crops. The Monastery of St. Gall (St. Galen) was founded approximately in 613. The monastery library of medieval manuscripts has been preserved here, which numbers 160 thousand items and is considered one of the most complete in Europe. One of the most interesting exhibits is the “Plan of Saint Gall”, compiled in the beginning. 9th century and representing an idealized picture of a medieval monastery (this is the only architectural plan, preserved from the early Middle Ages). Judging by this plan, there were: a monastery courtyard - a cloister, vegetable garden, a flower garden for church services, a garden of medicinal plants and an orchard, which was a symbol of paradise, and also included a monastery cemetery.
The library also preserved documents from which it follows that the monks not only bred medicinal plants themselves, but also collected them throughout Europe and even exchanged plants with the countries of the Islamic world, and also brought them from Crusades. The monastery book depositories contained works of ancient authors and the works of great scientists of the East, translated by the monks into Latin language, which contained invaluable information about the types and properties of plants. This is how the first collection gardens appeared. They had small sizes, and the plant collections in them were presented, placed in beds, with medicinal, poisonous, spicy plants used in medieval medicine, and some types of ornamental ones. It was these gardens that were the predecessors of the exhibition useful plants in modern botanical gardens. Small sizes, usually not exceeding several hundred square meters, made the planning structure of the botanical garden of that time relatively simple. So, for example, the apothecary garden in St. Galen, mentioned earlier, as can be judged from the surviving plan, consisted of 16 departments with various useful, ornamental and other plants. The plant displays in this garden were small rectangular areas with regular ridges.
Plan of the monastery of St. Gall.
1. The doctor's house. 2. Garden of medicinal plants. 3. Monastery courtyard - cloister. 4. Orchard and a cemetery. 5. Vegetable garden.
Later herb gardens, established at university botanical gardens for educational purposes, were also designed as beds. Despite the fact that many new plants grew in such flower beds, and they were arranged in accordance with the new scientific principles, the beds themselves remained the same geometric shape and simple layout. For example, in the garden laid out by the Society of London Apothecaries in the 17th century, such beds exist to this day.
Since the 14th century. Monastery apothecary gardens are gradually turning into medical gardens, in the activities of which fundamentally new features can already be noted. Unlike medieval monastery gardens, medical gardens now have not only a narrow practical significance. They laid the foundation for work on the primary introduction of plants, collected local and foreign plants, described them and brought them into a certain system.
The formation of botanical gardens as scientific institutions dates back to the Renaissance. This was greatly facilitated by the widespread dissemination of scientific knowledge and, in particular, natural science at that time. The first scientific botanical gardens appeared in Italy at the very beginning of the 14th century. (garden in Salerno -1309), where, in comparison with other European countries, by that time the most favorable socio-historical preconditions had developed for the formation of new socio-economic relations, for the creation and further flourishing of a new humanistic culture and, in particular, the brilliant flourishing science and art. True, until the first half of the 18th century. plant displays in most medical botanical gardens remained few in number, differing little from medieval monastery gardens. They were located in the garden area in the form of separate groups of medicinal and some other plants, used mainly in medicine.
Starting from the 16th century, with the development of university life, the number of botanical gardens in Italy increased significantly: gardens appeared one after another in Padua (1545), Pisa (1547), Bologna (1567), etc. Somewhat later, in the 17th century, botanical gardens were created in other European countries: at Paris (1635) and Uppsala (Sweden) universities (1655), in Berlin (1646), Edinburgh (England) - the Royal botanical garden (1670), etc.
The rapid accumulation of plant material in botanical gardens required its scientific generalization and systematization. Linnaeus, the founder of plant taxonomy, came out with his “Plant System” in 1753 and developed the first harmonious artificial system plant classifications. Linnaeus divided plants into 24 classes, basing each of them on arbitrary characteristics, and thereby created new method systematization flora. Linnaeus's plant system gave rise to numerous studies and aroused great interest in the description of plants. A few years after the publication of Linnaeus’ system, the number of studied and described plants reached 100 thousand. Since then, Linnaeus’ taxonomist and botanist have become almost identical concepts. The botanical garden of that time was like a living herbarium for taxonomy. Aesthetics took a back seat here. Botanical gardens as a kind of botanical laboratories at universities, demonstrating various systems plants became widespread in the 17th-18th centuries. Gradually, in the process historical development botanical gardens, they have a new function - educational and pedagogical.
The history of botanical gardens in Russia is closely connected with the origin and development of Russian botanical science. Already by the beginning of the 17th century. in our country there was a lot of information regarding practical use various plants both in the agricultural field and in medicine. Methods of using medicinal plants and descriptions of their medicinal properties were usually described in various “herbal books”, which were especially widespread in the second half of the 17th century. During the first half of the 18th century. in connection with the development of medical practice and the increasing need for production medicines The number of apothecary gardens in Russia is rapidly increasing. Along with the first botanical garden in our country opened in 1706 at Moscow University, other gardens were organized: in Lubny in 1709, in St. Petersburg (now the garden of the Botanical Institute named after V.L. Komarov) in 1714. In the decree Peter I on the establishment of the St. Petersburg apothecary garden says that the latter was created “for the multiplication of apothecary herbs and the collection of special herbs, which are the most necessary natural resources in medicine, and also for teaching doctors and pharmacists in botany.” Among the collections of plants in this apothecary garden we find: chamomile, sage, mint, mustard, thyme, juniper, peonies, lavender, various bulbous plants, roses, etc. The foundation of the botanical garden of the Academy of Sciences on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg dates back to the same time, in the first third of the 18th century. Only very fragmentary information has been preserved about this garden, found in the archive materials.
From the second half of the 18th century. in Russia, along with state ones, numerous private botanical gardens began to be created. Collecting rare exotic plants became a fashion at that time, to which every more or less wealthy person paid tribute. From this passion for collecting plants arose many botanical gardens of that time, in particular the famous gardens of P. Demidov in Moscow, A. Razumovsky in Gorenki near Moscow, etc. Some of them collected large, even in our time, collections of introduced plants . Thus, in the botanical garden of A. Razumovsky in Gorenki, up to 12 thousand species and varieties of Russian flora were presented. The botanical garden of the industrialist P. Demidov was established in 1756 and included in its collections up to 5 thousand species and varieties of plants.
At the end of the 18th century. The first botanical parks appeared in Russia - arboretums, which were laid out entirely in landscape style in accordance with the artistic tastes of the time. Such dendrological parks, which occupy an intermediate position between the botanical garden itself and an ordinary park, include the famous parks - Trostyanetsky in the Chernigov region, Sochi arboretum and Sofievsky near Uman in Ukraine, which have survived to this day.
In the first half of the 19th century. newly built botanical gardens, both in Russia and abroad, were created mainly as educational gardens at universities. Subsequently, gradually, as botanical knowledge increases, the range of activities of botanical gardens expands more and more. So at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. rapid development of cities began, a large scale of industrial construction, the emergence of complex urban planning problems in connection with this - the redevelopment and landscaping of cities, the creation of a protective forest park belt around large settlements, etc. - all this has confronted botanical gardens around the world with the task of determining the most rational assortment of plants and developing effective methods greening cities and building parks.
Modern botanical gardens are actively involved in solving these problems; here ornamental plants are selected and studied, gardens begin to act as promoters of certain techniques and methods of landscaping. In botanical gardens, more and more new exhibition areas are appearing - gardens individual crops, continuous flowering, exemplary corners of parks. At the same time, botanical gardens are increasingly promoting botanical knowledge and the study of living nature.
In the layout of botanical gardens, under the influence of the development of the free landscape direction, which has become widespread in the art of park planning, elements appear landscape style. Its artistic and aesthetic basis was the task of creating an idealized landscape. In connection with the new artistic tasks facing the art of park construction, the problems of studying decorative properties plants and their harmonious combination. In botanical gardens, scientific gardeners analyze artistic features and dendrological properties various breeds, methods of their design, possible groupings of plantings in parks and others the most important conditions creating a landscape.
So gradually, in the process of their historical development, botanical gardens from apothecary gardens of the Middle Ages have turned into a complex organism in our time. It should be noted that changes in botanical gardens occurred primarily under the influence of the general development of botanical science and changing requirements for the scientific and botanical content of the work of a botanical garden. On the other hand, the changes were organically connected with the general development of landscape gardening art.
A modern botanical garden is a complex organism with an area of up to many tens and even hundreds of hectares, with the recreation in certain areas of the garden of entire geographical landscapes and botanical-historical exhibitions (rock gardens, Japanese, Italian gardens, etc.), which cannot do without landscape an architect who achieves artistic unity of all the diversity of elements that make up the botanical garden.
At the end of the 4th century. The brilliant era of antiquity with its sciences, art, and architecture ended its existence, giving way to a new era - feudalism. The period of time spanning a thousand years between the fall of Rome (late 4th century) and the Renaissance in Italy (14th century) is called the Middle Ages, or the Middle Ages. This was the time of the formation of European states, constant internecine wars and uprisings, and the time of the establishment of Christianity.
In the history of architecture, the Middle Ages are divided into three periods: early medieval (IV-IX centuries), Romanesque (X-XII centuries), Gothic (late XII-XIV centuries). Change architectural styles does not significantly affect park construction, since during this period the art of gardening, which is the most vulnerable of all types of art and more than others requires a peaceful environment for its existence, suspends its development. It exists in the form of small gardens at monasteries and castles, that is, in areas relatively protected from destruction.
Monastery gardens. Herbaceous medicinal and ornamental plants were grown in them. The layout was simple, geometric, with a pool and fountain in the center. Often two crosswise intersecting paths divided the garden into four parts; in the center of this intersection, in memory of martyrdom Christ, a cross was erected or a rose bush was planted. The main features of the monastery type of gardens were their privacy, contemplation, silence, and utility. Some monastery gardens were decorated with trellis arbors and low walls to separate one area from another. Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen Garden in Switzerland was especially famous.
Feudal type gardens Castle gardens were built inside their territory. They were small and introverted. Flowers were grown here, there was a source - a well, sometimes a miniature pool and fountain, and almost always a bench in the form of a ledge covered with turf - a technique that became widespread in parks. In the gardens, covered alleys of grapes, rose gardens were arranged, apple trees were grown, as well as flowers planted in flowerbeds according to special designs. Of these gardens, the most famous are the Kremlin garden of Frederick II (1215-1258) in Nuremberg and the royal garden of Charles V (1519-1556) with a plantation of cherries, laurel trees and flower beds of lilies and roses. The gardens of Emperor Charlemagne (768-814) were very famous; they were divided into utilitarian and<потешные>. <Потешные>the gardens were decorated with lawns, flowers, low trees, birds and a menagerie.
Decorative elements such as flower beds, trellises, pergolas, etc. appeared. At the castles of large feudal lords, more extensive gardens were created - prato, not only for utilitarian purposes, but also for recreation.
The labyrinth garden is a technique that was formed in monastery gardens and took a strong place in subsequent park construction. Initially, the labyrinth was a pattern, the design of which fit into a circle or hexagon and led to the center in complex ways. IN early middle ages this drawing was laid out on the floor of the temple, and later transferred to the garden, where the paths were separated by the walls of a trimmed hedge. Subsequently, labyrinth gardens became widespread in regular and even landscape parks. In Russia there was such a labyrinth Summer Garden(not preserved), the regular part of Pavlovsk Park (restored) and Sokolniki Park, where its roads looked like intertwined ellipses inscribed in the spruce massif (lost).
The late Middle Ages are characterized by the opening of the first universities (Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Prague). Horticulture and botany have reached high level development, the first botanical gardens appeared. In 1525, the first botanical garden was established in Pisa. Following him, approximately the same gardens appeared in Milan, Venice, Padua, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Paris, Leiden, Wurzburg, Leipzig, Hesse, Regensburg. Along with botanical gardens, private gardens were also established.
With the discovery of America in 1493 and with the development of trade relations with India, the gardens began to fill exotic plants. Fruit growing and the cultivation of medicinal plants became widespread; oranges, laurels, figs, apple trees, cherries, etc. were cultivated in the gardens, and ponds, cascades, pools, fountains, gazebos, and pavilions were also built. Utilitarian gardens gradually turned into decorative ones.
Library of the Swiss Monastery of St. Gall was included in the list of UNESCO monuments in 1983. About 2,000 medieval manuscripts are kept here, but only one of them prompted the inclusion of the library on the UNESCO list - the earliest plan of a medieval monastery that has survived to this day. Here he is: 
Created in 819-826, the unique plan has been perfectly preserved to this day. Its purpose still remains a mystery. As experts suggest, most likely it was not a recording of the real state of affairs in the monastery, but some kind of ideal model for imitation. There are 333 inscriptions on the plan, allowing you to identify in detail all parts of the monastery: the cathedral, garden, school, services, etc. 
This copy of the plan shows all the "garden" parts of the monastery:
X is a vegetable garden, “under” which is the gardener’s house, Y is an orchard combined with a cemetery, Z is a garden of medicinal plants.
Thanks to the inscriptions, we can find out what grew in each of them.
In the garden of medicinal plants - sage, watercress, rue, caraway, iris, lovage, pennyroyal, fennel, peas, marsilia, costo (?), fenegreca (?), rosemary, mint, lilies and roses.
IN orchard- apples, pears, plums, mistletoe, bay, chestnuts, figs, quinces, peaches, hazelnuts, amendelarius (?), mulberries and walnuts.
In the arcaded courtyard adjacent to the cathedral (cloister), divided into four parts by paths, juniper grew.
And on this wonderful website http://www.stgallplan.org/en/index.html you can see the most the smallest details plan and read (using the transcript and English translation) all 333 inscriptions! And of course, learn a lot more about the plan of the monastery of St. Gall.
