Italian Renaissance Garden

イタリア式庭園 / 15th–17th century / Style / Garden Styles

The Renaissance garden of terraced slopes, stairs, channels and fountains. The hundred fountains of the Villa d'Este are the engineering art of water, with gravity as the design material.

Italian Renaissance Garden — Fountains of the Villa d'Este — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Fountains of the Villa d'Este — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Italian Renaissance Garden — The Path of a Hundred Fountains (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Burkhard Mücke — The Path of a Hundred Fountains (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Burkhard Mücke

Italian Renaissance Garden — Villa Lante, the Quadrato and the Fountain of the Moors — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Villa Lante, the Quadrato and the Fountain of the Moors — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Terraced slopes
Water stairs and fountains
Axes and statuary
Designed prospects

Best used for

Sloping sites used as terraces instead of being cut flat
Outdoor set pieces where water is shown with its sound and movement

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Dictionary entry

Type: Assign a theme to each terrace, rising in rank as you climb
Composition: Cut the slope into terraces with stair and channel on one axis
Material: Move water by fall alone, keeping rough stone and its green stain
Caution: Fountains get placed as ornament while the head and the flow rate are left for later, so nothing moves and the terraces are only stone.
Further study: the Villa d'Este / the Boboli Gardens / hydraulic spectacle

Related entries

French Formal Garden (フランス式整形庭園)Same Garden Styles lineage.Compare Italian Renaissance Garden and French Formal Garden
Palladianism (パッラーディオ主義)Shared effects: Luxury.Compare Italian Renaissance Garden and Palladianism

Often confused with

French Formal Garden (フランス式整形庭園)compare

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