Other Renaissance Garden Features
Other features included dovecotes, fishponds, meadows, hidden groves, and statuary-especially ones with classical themes. In Italy, the Renaissance garden designers often scavenged old Roman ruins, hoping to find useful pieces of carved stone and sculpture that had withstood the ravages of time. Topiaries were created in the form of mythological creatures.
The larger gardens even included aviaries, menageries, and mechanisms for imitating birdsongs. Garden designers sought to make birds welcome by including fruit-bearing plants they liked, and by providing them with shelter.
In addition, some garden owners displayed various ancient relics. Those with an interest in natural history, for example, might display what they called 'giant's bones.'
Renaissance gardens often featured kitchen gardens as well. Although the flower and kitchen gardens were sometimes side-by-side, they were separated by formal paths.
The Role of the Garden
Though the Renaissance gardens brought much pleasure, they served other purposes as well. For the owners, the gardens became symbols of wealth, prestige, and power through which they made known their political and social positions. These were used for entertainment, and ceremonial purposes in court life.
Renaissance gardens were also places where those with a serious interest in natural history could study, collect, and grow wildlife and plants, particularly ones from the New World, Asia, and elsewhere, as a means of revealing the complexity of God's creation.
Another important function was to provide visitors with classical references to allegories and historical legends in an effort to stimulate their minds.
Variations On a Theme
As time marched on, the Renaissance garden style spread to other parts of Europe, Britain, and North America via English and European settlers.
In each new location, the concepts of Renaissance gardens were re-interpreted and influenced by local conditions, cultural, and national history. Other plants, such as herbs, were added to planting schemes. Herbs were planted on top of grottoes, and scented ones in terra cotta containers were placed on parapets.
For the most part, the later non-Italian Renaissance gardens were of an elaborate nature.
In different countries, Renaissance garden designs varied slightly. In England, they often included an enclosed or secret garden used exclusively for private entertainment and pleasure. Though secret gardens were often featured in medieval gardens, the Renaissance version removed the religious ties of the Virgin Mary from these enclosed spaces.
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