Renaissance garden
A Renaissance garden is a garden or park created in the era and style of the Renaissance. Because the first such gardens originated in Italy, they are sometimes called Italian gardens. However, gardens made later in Germany, France, or England might have had some differences compared to the original Italian gardens. Contemporary development The fundamental design of the Renaissance garden has its roots in Italy. A new outlook on life began to take hold here during the end of the 15th century, with a return to forms, values, and ideas from antiquity, which influenced not only the humanities but also architecture and horticulture. The concept of humanism also led to a new understanding of gardens as well. Medieval limitations were abandoned, and instead of focusing on castles and fortifications, palaces and villas started to emerge. Nature took on a new significance. Also, the representational needs of the enlightened urban upper middle classes were to be taken into consideration, who were increasingly developing retreats for leisure and contemplation outside of cities, particularly in northern Italy. Antiquity and humanism The Renaissance witnessed a significant transition towards the literature and culture of classical antiquity, which often contradicted the views of the late Middle Ages. Within this movement, humanism emerged as the "scientific-spiritual side," emphasizing the ancient concept of culture and the ideal of humanity as desires and goals. The educated individual became the ultimate objective of humanistic education. Prominent figures of that era sought inspiration from ancient authorities like Vitruvius or Ovid when creating living spaces, aiming to recreate the ambiance of classical antiquity. Beautiful settings such as the Golden Age, the gardens of the Hesperides, the Nymphs and the Muses, or the Elysian fields of Homer and Virgil were depicted in the literary works studied for designing these spaces. Detailed literary descriptions of Roman gardens, such as those of Lucius Licinius Lucullus on the Pincio, Gaius Maecenas on the Esquiline, Sallust's Horti Sallustiani, Julius Caesar's gardens in Trastevere, the imperial gardens on the Palatine Hill, and notably, Nero's vast Domus Aurea (which are based on Suetonius's De vita Caesarum extended over a hundred hectares and contained meadows, arable land, vineyards, orchards, and artificial lakes), served as valuable models. Renaissance gardens’ design language was influenced by the revived aesthetics of Greek and Roman antiquity, embracing orderly homogeneity, and the use of staircases, sculptures, and water features. Nature The master builders of the Renaissance epoch aimed to achieve a balance between architecture and nature with their ideals. Today, the Renaissance garden is called the "third nature" - in distinction from the first (untouched) and second (cultivated) nature: The garden was intended to be an aesthetic image of rurality (Ruris imitatio) in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the city, which allegorically understood nature had produced artificial-looking formations. Nature was re-evaluated; it became the surface on which new happiness in life could be experienced. It was about the connection, or even the competition, between art and nature: Since Francesco Petrarch, the ideal of the