Heaven is a Place on Earth: A Global History of Garden Design Based on the course ​
Earthly Paradises: A Global History of Garden Design​
, created by Barbara Mooney at the University of Iowa. Instructor: Veronica Smith, M.A. This course explores the relationship between humanity and nature. Specifically, this course will illuminate how agriculture intersects with design, how economies have crested and crumbled because of plant obsessions, and how ornamental gardens have functioned as a metaphor for paradise across many cultures and periods. A chronological and comprehensive survey of garden design, this course will analyze landscape design, and will examine how the artful manipulation of the environment has historically expressed political, religious, and social ideals. Required Texts*: Hobhouse, Penelope. ​
The Story of Gardening​
. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2002. Additional topical texts will be assigned weekly, and will be available through the course website and the institutional library database. Students should also consider purchasing the two books they choose to read as part of the Book Club component of this class – most books can be found for around $10 through online retailers or in used book shops. Book Club Readings: Week 2: Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Gardens: Jalāl al­Dīn Rūmī (Maulana)​
Jelaluddin Rumi. ​
The Rumi Collection​
. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2005. Week 3: Ancient Greek Gardens: Homer, trans. Alexander Pope. ​
The Odyssey​
. (There’s a free Kindle version of this!) Week 4: Ancient Chinese Gardens: Lau Tzu, ​
Tao Te Ching​
, any translation/edition is fine. Week 5: Ancient Japanese Gardens: Murasaki, Shiikibu. ​
The Tale of Genji. ​
New York​
: ​
Random House, 2013. Week 6: Medieval Islamic Gardens: The Arabian Nights​
. Trans. Husain Haddawy. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990. 1
Week 7: Medieval Christian Gardens: Petrarch, trans. Peter Hainsworth.​
The Essential Petrarch​
. Hackett Publishing Co., 2010. Week 8: European Renaissance Gardens: Dante, The Inferno. Week 10: Botanical Discoveries, the New World, and Tulip Mania Don Quixote Week 11: Versailles and English Landscape Design Jean­Jacques Rousseau, ​
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality​
. Hackett Publishing, 1992. Week 12: Nineteenth­Century Rural Cemeteries, and the Public Parks Movement Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Week 13: Prairie Style Gardens Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Week 14: Modernism and Gardens Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse Week 15: Postmodernism Philip K. Dick, Do Androids of Sheep? Week 16: Sustainability Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma *​
All texts will be on reserve in the Art Library​
. Assessment The final grade for this course will be based on the following: ● Participation in class discussion and Book Club Meetings: 25% ● Paradise Paper:
15% ● Midterm Exam: 10% ● Final Exam:
15% ● Final Project:
25% ● Completion of Service Hours: 10% Grades are not weighted. To contest a grade for anything other than a mathematical error, students must submit (within seven days of the receipt of the contested grade) a single paragraph explanation of why their grade is deserving of reevaluation. Participation in Class Discussion: All students are expected to actively engage in productive discussion during class. ​
In the event of an ​
excused absence​
, a summary and analysis of the week’s reading (one page, single­spaced, Times New Roman font)​
​
may be turned in for full participation credit.​
​
Unexcused absences will result in zero points for the day missed.​
Additionally, students will be expected to participate in two Book Club meetings. 2
Book Club Meetings: To facilitate a more immersive experience of the cultures studied, students are required to read two additional works of literature and attend two Book Club meetings. These meetings will consist of a small group of students and the instructor, and will be located in various close­to­campus locations in the surrounding community. The instructor will provide refreshments. This structure is intended to facilitate more casual conversation than is sometimes possible in a classroom setting. ​
In the event of an ​
excused absence​
, a summary and analysis (two page, single­spaced, Times New Roman font)​
​
may be turned in for full participation credit. ​
Unexcused absences will result in zero points for the Book Club missed. Paradise Paper: Students will write a two­page (double­spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font) description of their ideal paradise. This description should discuss the following eight aspects: Topography, climate, water features, hardscapes (are there sidewalks or buildings present? If so, what do they look like?) plant life, purpose of the space (i.e. a sports arena, an outdoor shopping mall, etc.), inhabitants (what kind, if any, of animals live in this paradise? Are there particular people that the student would like to spend all of eternity with?), and finally, the sensory experience of the space. What would paradise smell like, sound like, and taste like? Exams:​
Exams in this course will challenge students to identify gardens by creator, date, and location as well as synthesize in written essays information from readings and from class discussion. Final Project:​
To promote interdisciplinary study, students may either write a ten­page research paper on the topic of their choice or produce a creative work (which could be anything from a series of paintings to a musical composition to a scientific experiment) of comparable effort, pending approval of the instructor. All papers and projects must relate to some aspect of the history of garden design, and must discuss at least three gardens. Service Hours:​
As gardening is ultimately a practical art, students must spend 10 hours outside of class weeding, watering, harvesting, and otherwise getting their hands dirty. Students will work with one of several community gardens and will chronicle their service through journal entries and a signed hours log. 3
Course Schedule: Week 1: Introduction to Course Content and Basic Tools for Analyzing Landscape Design Readings​
: Hobhouse, Introduction, p.6­16. Norton Book, Introduction, p. 20­30. Terms: Art Balance Climate Color Contrast Emphasis Form Garden Hardscape Line Movement Pattern Proportion Shape Space Texture Topography Unity Value Assignments: ­Paradise Paper Due ­Community partners for service hours will be introduced, service hours will be explained and locations assigned ­Visual Analysis Paper will be explained and assigned ­Book Club Sign­up Week 2: Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Gardens Readings: ​
Hobhouse, Chapter One: In the Beginning: The Origins of Gardening, p.16­ 30. Hirschfeld, Yizhar.“Perfume and Power from the Ancient Near East to Late Antiquities,” in ​
Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Culture Changes​
, ed. Michel Conan and W. John Kress (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 103­113. 4
Wilkinson, Alix. “Symbolism and Design in Ancient Egyptian Gardens,” ​
Garden History​
22, no.1 (Summer, 1994): 1­17. Terms: Upper and Lower Egypt Nile River Lotus Papyrus Ka Model House and Garden Shabti Shaduf Yokes Sycamore Fig Tree Date Palm Tree Doum Palm Tree Planting holes Axis of procession Frankincense Myrrh Resin/embalming Land of Punt (Somalia) Artificial hill Crenelated altar Pavilion Terrace Xenophon Zoroastrianism Gardens: Garden of Nakht and His Wife, Thebes, c. 1300 BCE, Egyptian Mortuary Temple of Mentuhotep, Deir el Bahari, c. 2010 BCE, Egyptian Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el Bahari, c. 1458 BCE, Egyptian Garden of Sargon II, Khorsabad, c. 706 BCE, Ancient Near Eastern Hanging Gardens of Babylon, (Babylon or Old Nineveh?), c. 700 BCE, Ancient Near Eastern Garden of King Ashurbanipal, Niveveh, c. 645 BCE, Ancient Near Eastern Cyrus’s Garden, Pasargadae, Persia, c. 550 BCE, Ancient Near Eastern Week 3: Ancient Greek Gardens Readings:​
Hobhouse, Chapter Two: Our Classical Heritage: Ancient Greece and Roman Gardens, 30­55. Alain Touwaide, “Art and Sciences: Private Gardens and Botany in the Early Roman Empire,” in ​
B​
otanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Culture 5
Changes​
, ed. Michel Conan and W. John Kress (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 37­49. st​
Pliny, ​
Letter on the Laurentian Villa​
(1​
century) Terms: Sacred Groves Garden of Epicurus Alexander the Great (356­323 BCE) Alexandria, Egypt Hellenistic Gardens Myrtle Pomegranates Alexander the Great (356­323 BCE) Alexandria, Egypt Hellenistic Gardens atrium Bacchus colonnade domus fresco hortus lararium mosaic peristyle triclinium Venus Villa Gardens Otium Negotium Villa rustica/villa urbana Gardens: Kerameikos Cemetery, Athens, 6th Century BCE and later Garden of the Temple of Hephaistos (aka Vulcan), Athens, 3rd century BCE, Greek House of the Vettii, Pompeii, 79 CE, Roman House of Venus in the Shell, (also known as House of the Marine Venus), Pompeii, 79 CE, Roman House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii, 79 CE, Roman Pliny the Younger, Laurentian Villa, southwest of Rome, 1st century CE Villa Poppaea, Oplontis (near Naples), 62 CE, Roman Fishburne Villa, Sussex, late 1st century CE, Roman Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, c. 130 CE, Roman 6
Week 4: Ancient Chinese Gardens Readings​
: Hobhouse, Chapter 10: Gardens of China: A Timeless Tradition, 318­345. Norman Kutcher, “China’s Palace of Memory,” ​
Wilson Quarterly​
27, no. 1 (2003): 30­39 Excerpts from the Tao Te Ching, available on the course website Terms: Scholar garden Yin/Yang Confucianism Taoism/Daoism Rocks ­ ­ Taihu Lake Plant symbolism: chrysanthemum, peony, hibiscus, lotus, flowering plum, bamboo, pine Calligraphy Jesuit Order Western Manions Garden Second Opium War Longevity Hill Tower of Buddhist Incense Marble Boat Long Corridor Imperial garden Gardens: The Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician, Suchou, China, c. 1506 Old Summer Palace, near Beijing, begun 1707, destroyed 1860 New Summer Palace Garden, near Beijing Week 5: Ancient Japanese Gardens Readings: Hobhouse, Chapter 11: Japanese Style: Symbolism and Restraint, 346­379. Jennifer L. Anderson, “Japanese Tea Ritual: Religion in Practice,” Man, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Sep., 1987), p.475­498. Terms: Phoenix Hall Pure Land Buddhism or Sukhavati (the place of the Amitabha) Western Paradise Visualization Sutra Peaceful Dragon Temple Zen Buddhism contemplation 7
dry garden style – kare sansui Moss Garden Tea Garden Strolling Garden Geomancy Gardens: Byodo­in Gardens, Uji, Japan, 1053 Ryoan­ji Garden, Kyoto, Japan, 1488 CE Week 6: Medieval Islamic Gardens Readings:​
Hobhouse, Chapter 3: The Gardens of Islam, Heavenly Beauty, Earthly Delight, 56 ­95. Mohammed El Faïz, “Horticultural Changes and Political Upheavals in Middle­Age Andalusia,” in ​
Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Culture Changes​
, ed. Michel Conan and W. John Kress (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 115­127. Ibn Luyun, Agricultural Poem, 14​
th ​
century Terms: Chahar Bagh Quadripartite Garden carpets Muslim Agricultural Revolution Qanat Chadar Nasrid Court of the Lions Court of the Myrtles Generalife muqarnas vaulting mirador Babur (1483­1530), architect Baburnama Genghis Khan Mongol > Mughal > movie mogul Moonlight Garden Gardens: Baghi Vafa (Garden of Fidelity), Kabul, Afghanistan, 1504, Babur (1483­1530), architect Baghi Babur, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1526 Shalimar (Abode of Love), Kashmir, India, 1620, Jahangir (1569­1627) and Shan Jahan (1592­1666), architects Taj Mahal, Agra, India, c. 1630, Shah Jahan (1592­1666), architect 8
Week 7: Medieval Christian Gardens Readings: Hobhouse: Chapter Four: Pleasure and Piety: Medieval Gardens of Christendom, p. 96 – 117. Nurhan Atasoy, “Links Between the Ottoman and the Western World on Floriculture and Gardening,” in ​
Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Culture Changes​
, ed. Michel Conan and W. John Kress (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 61­79 Carole Rawcliffe, “‘Delectable Sightes and Fragrant Smelles’: Gardens and Health in Late Medieval and Early Modern England,” ​
Garden History​
36, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 3­21 Terms: Herber Paradise garden Hortus conclusus Garden of virtues Gardens of love Labors of the Months (Gardens as a Measure of Time) Pleasure Parks Managed Forests: coppice/ stool/pollarded trees Herber Wattle fences Raised beds Tunnel arbor Turf seats (turf benches) Enameled mead = flower­filled meadow Gardens: Jan Van Eyck, Adoration of the Lamb from the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 Dominican Brother Lorens, Somme le Roi, 1279 Guillaume de Loris, Roman de la Rose, c. 1230 Week 8: European Renaissance Gardens Readings:​
Hobhouse, Chapter Five: The Renaissance Vision: The Flowering of the European Garden, p. 118­167 Claudia Lazzaro­Bruno, “The Villa Lante at Bagnaia: An Allegory of Art and Nature,” ​
Art Bulletin​
59, no. 4 (1977): 553­560 Elisabeth Woodhouse, “Propaganda in Paradise: The Symbolic Garden Created by the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth, Warwickshire,” ​
Garden History​
36, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 94­113. Terms: Cardinal Ippolito d’Este Fountains of Rome (aka Rometto) 9
Fountains of Tivoli (aka Fountains of the Sybils) Avenue of a Hundred Fountains (Aniene River) Mannerism conceit public entrances Sacro Bosco Hell Mouth Cardinal Gianfrancesco Gambara Tommaso Ghinucci palazzine (casinos) Fountain of the Moors heraldic devices aviary Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII Robert Laneham’s letter gatehouse terrace aviary obelisks fountain of Atlas Gardens: Pirro Ligorio, Gardens of the Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Italy, 1550 Duke Vicino Orsini, Gardens of the Villa Orsini, Bomarzo, Italy, 1552 Giacomo da Vignola (attributed), Gardens of the Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Italy, 1568 Garden at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, England, 1575 Midterm Exam Week 9: BREAK – No Class Week 10: Botanical Discoveries, the New World, and Tulip Mania Readings: Hobhouse, Chapter Six: Plants on the Move, Botanists, Collectors, and Artists, 118 – 167. Saúl Alcántara Onofre, “The Chinampas Before and After the Conquest,” in Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Culture Changes​
, ed. Michel Conan and W. John Kress (Washington D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 159­175 EA Thompson, “The Tulipmania: Fact or Artifact?” Public Choice, Vol. 130. January 2007. 99­114. Terms: Cabinets of Curiosity 10
Scientific Revolution of the 17th century Plant genetics Carl Linnaeus, Uppsala University Tulip Mania, c. 1637 Gardens: Botanical Garden at the University of Padua, Padua, 1545 Carolus Clusius, Botanical Garden at the University of Leiden, Leiden, 1593 Week 11: Versailles and English Landscape Design Readings: Hobhouse, Chapter Seven: A Natural Revolution, The English Landscape Garden, 204 ­243 Roger Turner, “Capability Brown’s Style and Techniques” in ​
Capability Brown and the Eighteenth­Century Landscape​
(New York: Rizzoli, 1985), 68­91 Terms: English Landscape Garden Nicholas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, 17th century painters Alexander Pope, English poet Augustan poetry (Roman and English) Whig Politics Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, c. 1750 Agricultural Revolution of Eighteenth Century Enclosure Acts Common Fields Grand Tour Hierarchy of Subject Matter Landscape painting History painting Stone Bridge garden folly The Pantheon Gothic Cottage Grotto lawn tree clumps of 3, 5 , or 7 serpentine rivers or lakes Marie Antoinette Jean Jacques Rousseau romantic ruin Romanticism Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway Samuel Vaughan plan Chinoiserie 11
Gardens: Henry Hoare II and Henry Flitcroft, Gardens of Stourhead, Wiltshire, England, 1741 with later additions Lancelot Brown (aka “Capability” Brown), Garden at Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England, c. 1764 Garden at Petworth, West Sussex, England, 1750 Richard Mique, The Hameau, Versailles, France, 1775 William Chambers, Pagoda at Kew Gardens, London, England, 1774 George Washington, Gardens at Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia, 1787 Week 12: Nineteenth­Century Rural Cemeteries and the Public Parks Movement th​
Readings: Hobhouse: Chapter 8: The Eclectic 19​
Century: Novelties, Inventions, and Revivals, 244 – 279. Reuben Rainey, “Therapeutic Landscapes: America’s Nineteenth­Century Rural Cemeteries,” ​
View​
10 (Summer 2010): 18­21. www.centralparkhistory.com​
[read sections on 1850s and 186 Terms: Landscape Cemetery Movement Picturesque Beautiful/Picturesque/Sublime Doctor Syntax Industrial Revolution Public Park Joseph Strutt Gardenesque Green house/Palmhouse Duke of Devonshire Chatsworth Central Illinois Railroad/Abraham Lincoln Landscape Suburb herbaceous border Gertrude Jeykll Cottage Garden Style Gardens: Humphrey Repton (1752­ 1818), illustrations of Lord Sidmouth’s Landscape Design (Before and After) From Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Architecture, 1816 Henry Dearborn, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA. 1829 William Sawrey Gilpin (1762­1843), Practical Hints for Landscape Gardening, 1832 John Claudius Loudon (1783­1843) Derby Park, Derby, England, 1840 Joseph Paxton (1803­1865), Birkenhead Park, Liverpool, England, 1848 12
A. J. Downing, Cottage Residences, 1842 Frederick Law Olmsted & Calvert Vaux, Central Park (Greensward Plan), New York City, 1857 Week 13: Prairie Style Gardens Readings: Hobhouse, Chapter Twelve: A Time of Change From Naturalism to Modernism 1870­1950, 380 – 419. Robert E. Grese, “The Prairie Gardens of O.C. Simonds and Jens Jensen,” in Regional Garden Design in the United States​
, ed. Therese O’Malley and Marc Treib (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1995), 99­12 Terms: Urbs in Horto Chicago Stockyards Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Chicago Parks Bill, 1869 council ring Prairie School Frank Lloyd Wright Gardens: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Plan of Riverside, Riverside, Illinois, 1868 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jackson Park and Washington Park, Chicago, 1869 William Le Baron Jenny, Douglas Park, Humboldt Park, and Garfield Park (originally called Central Park), Chicago, 1869 Swain Nelson, Lincoln Park, 1869 Jens Jensen, Prairie Landscape in Columbus Park, Chicago, 1915 Alfred Caldwell, Eagle Point Park, Dubuque, 1936 Week 14: Modernism and Gardens Readings: William Howard Adams, ​
Roberto Burle Marx: The Unnatural Art of the Garden (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1991), 15­ 37; Gregg Bleam, “Modern and Classical Themes in the Work of Dan Kiley,” in ​
Dan Kiley Landscapes: The Poetry of Space​
, ed. Reuben M. Rainey and Marc Treib (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2009), 78­97. Gardens: Daniel Urban Kiley, J. Irwin Miller House Gardens, Columbus, Indiana, 1953 Eero Saarinen, architect of house Air Force Academy Landscape, Colorado Springs, CO, 1958 Lincoln Center Garden, New York, 1960 Chicago Art Institute South Garden, Chicago, 1962 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) Landscape, St. Louis, 13
MO, 1965 Nelson­Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1988 Roberto Burle Marx, Ministry of Education Roof Garden, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1936 Olivio Gomes Estate Landscape, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1965 Copacabana Promenade, Rio de Janeiro, 1970 Terms: International Style Mies van der Rohe Abstraction Surrealism Native plants Joan Miro Post­Modernism Week 15: Postmodernism and In­Class Final Project Workshop Readings: Hobhouse, Chapter Thirteen: Today and Tomorrow: A World of Opportunities 420­453. Treib, Marc, “Must Landscapes Mean?: Approaches to Significance in Recent Landscape Architecture,” Landscape Journal, Spring 1995 vol. 14: 46 ­62. Gardens: Martha Schwartz and Peter Walker, Cambridge Center Garden, Cambridge, Mass., 1985 Louis Kahn, Four Freedoms Park, New York City, 1973; dedicated October 24, 2012 Week 16: Sustainability Readings: Way, Thaisa ; Matthews, Chris ; Rottle, Nancy ; Toland, Timothy R., “Greening the American Campus: Lessons from Campus Projects.” Planning for Higher Education, 2012, Vol.40(2), p.25­47​
Virginia Scott Jenkins, “Men, Women, and Front Lawns,” in ​
The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 117­132; Michael Pollan, “Beyond Wilderness and Lawn (1998),” in ​
Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability​
, ed. William S. Saunders (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 66­81. Terms: Gray field Brown Field Green Field 14
Transit Oriented Design Sprawl/ sprawl mitigation Sustainability Environmentalism Green wall Assignments: Final Project and Service Hour Log Due Final Exam TBA 15