Garden

Presents a history of gardens, from medieval times through the twentieth century, and illustrates the importance of gardens in history and culture

Drawing on his experience as a landscape architect and historian, Pizzoni traces the history of garden design, recounting the international styles and aesthetic ideals of 400 years. From the mystery of secluded Islamic gardens and hidden Italian sanctuaries to the grandeur of the Renaissance complexities and Baroque extravaganzas; from Arcadian naturalism to structured 20th-century Modernism--all aspects of our relationship with nature are discussed, albeit with broad strokes and generalizations and very few new insights. Although the illustrations are excellent and the presentation visually pleasing, the author has little to add to the currently extensive literature on garden design as an art form or as a reflection of social change. A worthwhile purchase only for large general collections or those with an extensive holding of garden literature.
-Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Pizzoni posits that his aim is to consider the history of the garden in the West--from the fourteenth century to the present--as an art form and an expression of the taste of societies and individuals. Illustrating the importance of gardens in human history, the author examines such concepts, periods, and styles as the medieval garden, the Italian Renaissance, the age of the Baroque, the Arcadian landscape, the English garden in Europe, and the twentieth-century bourgeois garden. Pizzoni's text is at once scholarly and absorbing, augmented by 450 illustrations, 325 of them in color. They range from a 1597 painting in color and a 1793 black-and-white engraving to color photographs of the Mexican gardens of Luis Barragan. This is truly a remarkable book. George Cohen