INTERIOR LANDSCAPES; GARDENS AND THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT.

Rees, Ronald.

ISBN 10: 0801844673 / ISBN 13: 9780801844676

Published by Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993., 1993

About this Item

First edition (not stated). xvi, 192 pages. Hardcover: H 25.75cm x L 18.25cm. Dust jacket rubbed with slight bumping at edges, a few negligibly short tears at top edge of rear panel. Black cloth spine with vibrant gilt stamping, dark olive green boards with bottom corners mildly bumped. Interior pages are bright and clean. Binding is firm. A very good+ copy in a very good dust jacket. With b/w frontispiece and illustrations, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Bibliography, and Index. features eight chapters titled as: "Palace and Villa," "Cloister and Castle," "Renaissance House and Garden," "Outlandish Landscapes," "The Neoclassical Landscape," "Nineteenth-Century Villas," "Gardens Indoors," and "Epilogue," ISBN 0801844673.

Seller Inventory # Z626X-4243

Bibliographic Details

• Title: INTERIOR LANDSCAPES; GARDENS AND THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT.
• Publisher: Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801844673
• ISBN 13: 9780801844676
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Architecture

About this title

Synopsis

"Interior Landscapes combines research and scholarship from a variety of fields into a synthesis that offers a fresh and appealing view of our house and garden heritage. The way the themes are interwoven... makes for a book of considerable charm, an enjoyable read that also suggests some new and provocative thoughts about the cultural history of domesticity."--Wilson Library Bulletin

Reviews

This book shows how the decorative tradition of naturalistic interiors--whether expressed in tapestries, needlework, carpets or wallpaper--began with a compulsion to represent the outdoor world inside of dwellings. Beginning with Roman palaces and villas, then moving on to medieval cloisters and castles, and to Renaissance, neo-classical, and finally 19th-century villa interiors, Rees, a professor of geography at Mount Allison University, takes readers on a verdant walk through garden motifs. He plies us with examples of bringing the outdoors in, from huge tapestries depicting epic hunting scenes to embroidery expressing floral life so loyally that the language of the two--needlework and garden--have become interchangeable. His detail and scholarship are admirable, telling us of herbs and flowers scattered across palace floors; of intricate botanical effects in needlework, with dozens of exotic plants, symbolic flowers, and even insects depicted vibrantly in thread; of rich Renaissance-era carpets, where one could walk on the woven plants of nature as if through a path in the woods; and of the florid wallpaper designs of William Morris and the "interior rooms" still created today in conservatories. Though the naturalistic approach still lives in interior design, Rees mostly takes a backward look; his work is that of a historian, not a pragmatic advisor. And so, though not "useful," the book is a delightfully written, vivid story of people's connection to the outdoors.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.