A Garden of Peace: A Medley in QuietudeMoore, Frank Frankfort
General
A Garden of Peace: A Medley in Quietude
Moore, Frank Frankfort
Gardens -- Fiction
If I had a Pan I would not be afraid to locate him in the densest part
of a shrubbery, where only his ears and the grin between them could be
seen among the foliage and his goat's shank among the lower branches.
His effigy is shown n its legitimate place in Gabe's Picture, “Fête
Galante.” That is the correct habitat of Pan, and that is where he would
be shown in the hall of the Natural History Museum where every “exhibit”
has its natural _entourage_. If I had a Dryad and had not a pond with
reeds about its marge, I would make one for her accommodation, for,
except with such surroundings she should not be seen in a garden. I
have a Daphne, but she is an indoor one, being frailly made, and with
a year's work of undercutting, in Greek marble--a precious copy of
Bernini's masterpiece. But if I had an outdoor Daphne, I would not rest
easy unless I knew that she was within easy touch of her laurel.
That is why I do not think that any hard and fast rule should be laid
down in the matter of the disposal of statuary in a garden ground. But
on the general principle of “the proper place,” I certainly am of the
opinion expressed by the writer to whom I have referred--that this
element of interest and beauty should be found mainly in connection
with the stonework of the house. In any part of an Italian garden stone
figures seem properly placed; because so much of that form of garden
is made up of sculptured stone; but in the best examples of the art you
will find that the statuary is placed with due regard to the “feature”
it is meant to illustrate. It is, in fact, part of the design and
eminently decorative, as well as being stimulating to the memory and
suggestive to the imagination. In most of the English gardens that
were planned and carried out during the greater part of the nineteenth
century, the stone and lead figures that formed a portion of the
original design of the earlier days were thrown about without the least
reference to their fitness for the places they were forced to occupy;
and the consequence was that they never seemed right: they seemed to
have no business where they were; hence the creation of a prejudice
against such things. Happily, however, now that it is taken for granted
that garden design is the work of some one who is more of an architect
than a horticulturist, though capability in the one direction is
intolerable without its complement in the other, the garden ornamental
is coming into its own again; and the prices which even ordinary and by
no means unique examples fetch under the hammer show that they are being
properly appreciated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account