Further insight: Gardens in Tuscany

The Gardens of Tuscany are an important part of Italy’s cultural and artistic heritage and their constant evolution throughout the centuries has served to reflect the ever-changing relationship between man and his natural environment. As well as featuring visually beautiful photographs the exhibition also offers an insight into the essence of Italian landscape design, covering, as it does, gardens from the main periods of Italian history.

Therefore, the exhibition is divided into four distinct sections: the Renaissance, the Baroque, theRomanticand the Contemporary, which outline the distinctive elements, designs and trends from these different periods.

In the fifteenth century, Florence and Tuscany were leading centers of great artistic experimentation, playing host to many artists and architects such as Brunelleschi, Donatello and Giambologna, who attached a great importance to the observation of nature. As such, the numerous gardens which flourished during the Renaissance were a significant expression of this revolutionary movement and represented a new relationship between man and his environment. This could be also seen in the wide use of statues which enriched the design of the landscapes and gardens.

During the seventeenth century Tuscany was strongly influenced by the French Court of Louis XIV. The gardens and landscapes designed in the Baroque period reflected a new taste for grandeur and magnificence as embodied by the so-called ‘ French Style Garden’, which became very popular at that time. The imposing scenery of the new designs were crowded with spectacular decorative touches, and featured a huge diversity of statues, water features and types of plant.

By the eighteenth century the dominant influence had shifted from France to England. The gardens developed in the Romanticperiod demonstrated a taste for harmony, geometry and rationality with a poetical neoclassical style. The concept of elegance and beauty expressed through the search for purity and simplicity reached its height at the end of the century and can clearly be seen in the harmony of the gardens designed at that time.

The final section of the exhibition focuses on the gardens of the twentieth century. The contemporary gardens are often inspired by traditional concepts like the Renaissance and the Romanticism, skillfully combined with innovative modern settings. The use of statues and art installations, serpentine paths and striking decorative elements, is thought provoking but also continues to maintain the traditions of a harmonious dialogue with the surrounding landscape.

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The exhibition Gardens in Tuscany, which takes place at Siam Paragon Shopping Complex from the 18 th of June to the 1 st of July, will display a series of pictures by famous Italian photographer Massimo Listri, taken in the most beautiful Gardens and Villas of Tuscany, Italy.

The Gardens of Tuscany are an important cultural and artistic heritage of Italy. Their constant evolution throughout the centuries has punctually reflected the changing relationship between man, nature and the environment.

Besides the artistic value of the photographers work, the exhibition presented by Regione Toscana, features the essence of Italian landscape design, focusing on the main historic periods that have marked its evolution throughout the ages, such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Romantic and the Contemporary period. Accordingly, the exhibition is divided in four distinctive sections which outline the dominant elements and designs that usually prevailed in each of these periods.

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