Nature into art: gardens and landscapes in the everyday life of Ancient Rome

• Autores: Michel Conan
• Localización: Studies in the history of gardens and designed landscape, ISSN 1460-1176, Vol. 6, Nº 4, 1986, págs. 348-356
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • According to Vitruvius, landscape painting was already a long-established art in Rome when he wrote De architectura in 30 bc. Townhouses of the period rarely offered views on to the outside world, but stylized landscapes were painted on their inner walls, so that the Romans were surrounded by pictorial representations of nature, and their gardens became extensions of these. Gardens were expected not to imitate nature, but to evoke it according to accepted conventions. Painting suggested nature, gardens were an extension of it. Under Augustus a certain Ludius is credited with having invented a style of landscape painting based on typical aspects of the garden, thus cleverly taking gardens back to nature. As a result there were in Roman houses rooms with garden scenes painted on their walls; since the rooms opened on to planted patios, the Romans could feel the atmosphere of a garden whichever way they looked. The Roman concept of the house thus appears to have been inspired by a poetic view of nature as a whole, of which the garden is but one part. This impression is confirmed by a study of the ruins of Pompeii.