Nature was a favored spot for the Renaissance princes
Nature is a divine force, and all the artists felt this deeply.
The penchant for nature and landscapes in painting emerged at the end of the 14th century.
Portraits which, in the past, had contrasted with a monochrome background, now
stood out from a room with a window, then from a room with a window looking out
on a landscape, then from a landscape without a window.
For instance, Piero
della Francesca painted the portrait of the Duke of Urbino in front of a
landscape which is so panoramic that it suggests an artist's anamorphosis.
The Duke of Urbino justifying himself by the vastness of the horizons which he thus seems to rule.
The Renaissance prince dips into Nature.
Why gardens in particular?
A garden can be modeled, it can be manufactured; a garden is thus a form of
nature on which man can have an impact.
Man sculpts Nature: Man is nearly God's peer.
When the Renaissance princes ordered a waterfall here, a mountain there and
facing perspectives, they felt a bit like Jupiter thundering from the top of
the Sistine Chapel, or, if you prefer, they felt like God the father.
We are in an era in which the Prince and God were like twins. The garden was thus a spot which the princes valued highly.
A garden offers an adventure, a garden tells a story.
This story is highlighted by important moments, in which the genius of science and the marvels of Nature were able to come together.
A grotto dedicated to Vulcan allowed a Renaissance prince to exult.
Why?
Because it allowed him to keep the gods with him and, as such, to imagine
himself to be the gods' equal.
The allegorical aspect was very important to many of the garden patrons of that
era. As an example, a grotto dedicated to Vulcan had to be picturesque.
In order to be picturesque, the strangest and rarest objects had to be
collected from around the world and included in the decor. The Renaissance
delighted in rare corals, rare shells, anything rare...
After allegory came Science. Then the marvels of human genius were added, ingenuity such as automatons, the sophistication of which never ceased to increase, reaching the point when 10, 15 or 20 figures could be put in motion in the form of tableaux which could be played out in any way the spectator wished.
Allegories, the conjunction of science and pure futurology were the three reasons for which
these "fabrications" started appearing in these gardens.
They became ever more elaborate, complicated and expensive but, above all, fragile. A few years of
neglect were enough to destroy forever the ingenuity of what people of that era
had begun to call the engineers of the Renaissance.
