The Idea of Villa Castagna
A garden is both a real place, and a cloud of possibilities. What you will find here will be both something real, and something that may or may not become real. For this reason you will find no map: Instead you will meet fragments, part real, part possible.
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Category Archives: Garden History
The Chinese Fret in Oiserie Design
1. The Chinese fret is a key theme in Chinoiserie design and its principles are not always obvious. This series of images attempts to explain its design principles. It is based on a Chinoiserie bridge design published by Becker in … Continue reading →
The Gardens in Hamilton New Zealand: Part 2. The Picturesque Garden
Part 1: Introduction The Hamilton Gardens garden recognise that there is another garden style beside the Chinese that relies on a linear itinerary, the picturesque landscape garden. At Hamilton this is done in an interestingly and quite original way by … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Architecture, Art, Baroque architecture, Baroque Gardens, Fabriques, Garden History, Plants, Uncategorized
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Montsalvat Part 1: Less an Artist’s Colony than an Ideal Burgundian Village, an Australian Portmeirion
While Montsalvat was an artist’s colony, it was also a Portmeirion: one man’s dream of building a village that romantically alluded to old Europe. Continue reading →
Grosssedlitz and the Grassy Pool
The grassed pools are quite fascinating, and almost constitute a design idea in its own right. Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Architecture, Baroque architecture, Baroque Gardens, Garden History, Uncategorized
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Tagged Baroque Gardens, creative gardens, Garden History
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Fabriques in Paintings 1: Sebastian Vrancx. Part C. The Figures.
This series of posts (A-C) discusses depictions of small buildings that I feel inclined to appropriate to the category of fabriques. Images by the author unless otherwise stated. Sebastian Vrancx’s An Elegant Company Dining Outdoors, c. 1610–1620 in the Museum … Continue reading →
Fabriques in Paintings 1: Sebastian Vrancx. Part B. The Setting and Architecture
This series of posts (A-C) discusses depictions of small buildings that I feel inclined to appropriate to the category of fabriques. They work outwards from the fabrique to the image as a whole, as required. Images by the author unless … Continue reading →
Fabriques in Paintings 1: Sebastian Vrancx. Part A. The Trelliswork Fabrique on the Terrace
This series of posts (A-C) discusses depictions of small buildings that I feel inclined to appropriate to the category of fabriques. They work outwards from the fabrique to the image as a whole, as required. Images by the author unless … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Architectural paintings, Architecture, Art, Baroque architecture, Baroque Gardens, Fabriques, Garden History, Uncategorized, Villas
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Tagged Vrancx
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Jemima Grey’s Chinoiserie Fabrique at Wrest Park. Part 4. The Chinese Bridges
There was also, it seems, a Chinese bridge that went with the ‘house’ or temple. I can’t seem to find any primary sources for this. This is long gone. There is today a Chinese bridge nearby made of brick and … Continue reading →
Posted in All Posts, Architecture, Art, Baroque architecture, Baroque Gardens, Construction, Country Houses, English Gardens, Fabriques, Garden History, Main, Restoration and Conservation, Uncategorized
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Tagged bridges, Chinoiserie, eighteenth-century garden buildings, Fabriques, follies, jemima grey, wrest park
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Jemima Grey’s Chinoiserie Fabrique at Wrest Park. Part 3. Chinese Elements, Function, Typology and Sources
Chinese Elements There is not much Chinese about the fabrique. It has a dragon on the pinnacle, which was easy to miss in 2013 (Fig. 4), but must be much more conspicuous now that it has been gilded (Fig. 13). … Continue reading →
Villa Castagna 
The Gardens in Hamilton New Zealand: Part 1. Introduction
Part 2. The Picturesque Garden The Enclosed Gardens in Hamilton, New Zealand, are one of the most exciting creations I have seen in Australia and New Zealand. There seems to be nothing quite like it anywhere else. Unlike the Chaumont … Continue reading →