There are two forms of balance, symmetrical and asymmetrical. This column is about balance in the classical Western tradition. There may be other sorts of balance in other traditions, but I am not familiar enough with those traditions to write about them.
I have been looking at my garden to see how I use balance to unify it. I call the style of my garden "rustic formal". When most people think of formal gardens they tend to envision the grand gardens of late seventeenth century France, such as Vaux-le-Vicompte. In these gardens there is one over-all symmetrical design; each part of the garden supports the grand design. My garden is descended from 16th century gardens, especially those of the Netherlands. Italian gardens were the most classical of 16th century gardens, but even in Italy most gardens were not rigidly symmetrical. 16th century gardens were an arrangement of formal features, but the over-all design was rarely symmetrical in the sense of one half of the garden mirroring the other half.
I use symmetry in a manner similar to 16th century gardens. The features in the formal part of my garden are symmetrical, the canal has a pair of arbors on either side, the simple parterre is symmetrical, but the overall pattern of the entire garden is not symmetrical. For example, the simple parterre has a double row of blueberry bushes to the east and a narrow bed of roses to the west. I also use symmetry in the less formal parts of the garden when I want to emphasize a feature, this helps to unify the formal and less formal parts of my garden.
In this article I am mainly writing about the use of balance to create classical compositions. These rules are not just for formal gardens, but for all gardens, at least Western gardens. Classical doesn't have to mean symmetrical, the paintings of Claude Lorrain and Nicholas Poussin are very classical without being symmetrical. The paintings of both artists had a huge influence on the English landscape gardens of the 18th century such as Stourhead. The basic idea for these landscape gardens came from China, but the way that they are visually composed is inspired by classical European paintings much more than by Chinese gardens and paintings. In the paintings of Poussin, the figures are dominant over the landscape, so they aren't as helpful to gardeners as those of Lorraine, but Poussin had a wonderful sense of composition.
