The Small Winter Garden in the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg.

Watercolours by Konstantin Ukhtomsky (1818-1881), reveal the luxuriant greenery of the Small Winter Garden of Empress Aleksandra Fëdorovna (1872-1918) in the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, around the 1860s.

In the 19th century, winter gardens were a fashionable addition to wealthy houses in St. Petersburg. Rare plants, perfumed flowers, coloured parrots, goldfish, fountains, secret corners and a pleasant warmth helped to forget the harsh Russian winter that raged outside.

To create the perfect environment for plants and prevent problems caused by excessive humidity and water leaks, water tanks and a boiler were placed under the marble staircase of the Small Winter Garden, and hot water circulated through pipes. Ample windows and glazed doors   increased lighting and created the illusion of a larger space as the arched openings that connected the enfilade of rooms and mirrors. Trellis embroidered by ivy and climbing plants created living green walls completed by delicate stucco garlands of flowers on the ceiling and paintings.
A small marble fountain was surrounded by flowers and plants, birds sang and fluttered freely.

The atmosphere was unique. Plants in pots, such as palms, bananas, camellias and orchids, become indoor decorative elements combined with fabric, such as the silk and satin that draped the grotto in front of the fountain, carpets, statues, and a fireplace.

Paintings:
Konstantin Andreyevich Ukhtomsky
Interiors of the Winter Palace. The Small Winter Garden in the Apartments of Alexandra Fyodorovna
https://www.arthermitage.org/Ukhtomsky-Konstantin-Andreyevich/index.start24.show48.html

The Brassica tribe in the Winter Garden of Frances Jane Hope.

"Will you permit me to offer a few practical remarks on the subject of that great desideratum, a Winter Flower Garden?"

"A Winter Garden must last for seven months..." continues Frances Jane Hope (d. 1880), Scottish plantswoman of Wardie Lodge, near Edinburgh, explaining her dedication to this neglected subject.
She sums up fourteen years of experiments, trials, failures and findings in an article  written for the Gardener's Chronicles in February 1863.
  

She describes her Winter Garden:

"The Beds are on Grass, 35 in number, the Largest 23 feet by 71/2, and a Circle, of 13 feet diameter, and the Smallest Circles, of 51/2 feet diameter. There is in each Bed, a Centre of Evergreens, a Border or Ring of Colour, an Edging of Variegation, and close to the Grass, early Bulbs. Now, the article of Colour, is my strong point, to which I wish to draw attention, and to popularise."

Because, despite the use of expensive shrubs and plants, of variegated hollies, conifers, Daphnes, Berberis, Ericas and edges of Cineraria maritima, Santolina, pinks and alyssum,

"Colour, in the common acceptation of the word, is wanting, until the Crocuses bloom; and for the dead months, it must be so, unless you employ, the various varieties of the Brassica tribe. By the use of these, you obtain every shade, from the darkest Purple of the Siberian, to the vivid Magenta, Mauve, and Rose of the Borecoles, and also, pure, and yellow, White. All other Green looks dead, when compared with the lively growing Green of the German Kale, and in the unhearted, Dutch Cabbage, the various shades of Purple and Red, combined with rich bloom, have a very telling effect, in large Centre beds."

In a subsequent article, she details her choices for the Colour Borders: a limited number of evergreens, Aucuba japonica, Rhododendron ponticum and buxus,  and many varieties "of Brassica oleracea: Bed Dutch Cabbage, Triple Curled Borecole, White and Green Variegated, Purple Variegated, Purple, or Russian Borecole,- arranged in different ways— one, two, or three colours ; Bed, Purple, White, and Green, alternate or mixed ; the Beds in pairs, generally."

drawings: Cauliflowers: The Half-Early Paris, Long Island Beauty, Extra-Early Dwarf Erfurt

She writes again about Winter Gardens for the Gardeners' Chronicles in January 1874.
"The special characteristics of our Winter Garden are Cheapness, Colour and Variety", she states and with the confidence of twenty-five year experience and the pride of a job well done, ignoring expensive conifers and imported bulbs, she writes her last praise to the Brassica tribe.

"Now, I have finished, once for all, about the Kales; they have, for above twenty years, Beautified, 

(no other word suits,) our Winter Beds, and given us, and all our Garden Friends, enjoyment. They have turned those Winter foes, (as many consider them) — Fogs, Mists, Hoar Frosts, and Sleet, into effects, for pleasure, and study, in Gardens; effects, that are generally to be observed in perfection, only, in Glens, and by Burn-sides. 

   "Frosted Silver," and "Diamonds," are expletives, I hear, used in connection, with Winter effects, on our Kales, but as Silver is not frosted, nor do Diamonds sparkle, au naturel but as both must pass, through the Jeweller's hands, to do so, I prefer, to keep to plain words, and the fact, that all Varieties, of Winter Weather, add varied beauties, to these Kales, — beauties, which, without them, would be unnoticed, in the Flower Garden." 

drawings: Cabbages








Photos:
TravelinaGarden, January 2019

drawings from Cabbages and Cauliflowers...

Further reading:
Notes and Thoughts on Gardens and Woodlands: Written Chiefly for Amateurs, by the late Frances Jane Hope. London: MacMillan, 1881.


Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How To Grow Them.A Practical Treatise, Giving Full Details on Every Point, Including Keeping and Marketing the Crop.
James J. H. Gregory, Boston: Cashman, Keating & Co., 1889.

Three Japanese waterfalls.

Landscape with Waterfall,
Nakabayashi Chikutō

Natural waterfalls inspired the art of gardening in Japan and the detailed instructions in the Sakuteiki, the oldest text dedicated to garden-making, explained how to create them starting from the selection of the falling-water stone.

Rocks and water, fundamental elements in Japanese gardens, are combined in waterfalls not only to create enchanting decorative effects, but also to inspire with the different shapes and sizes of the rocks, and the energy and purity of the running water that conveys the constant changes of the universe.

In the following three waterfalls, movement, reflection and the sound of water, or better its absence, are linked to ancient traditions.

Ryumon-no-taki

Kinkaku-ji

The waterfall to the north of the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto is called "dragon gate waterfall", Ryumon-no-taki. The central stone represents a carp that is swimming upstream.



According to the Chinese and Japanese mythology, if it succeeds in climbing the rapids and passing the Dragon Gate, the tenacious carp is transformed into a Dragon. The idea of the carp as symbol of success and social advancement, of courage and wisdom is reinforced by its scales seen as a warrior's armor.
Kinkaku-ji was created in 1397 by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Sengetsu-sen

The "spring in which the moon washes", or Sengetsu-sen, is the poetic name of the waterfall at Ginkaku-ji, a temple in eastern Kyoto created in 1480 by the Shogun Ashkaga no Yoshimasa. The name of the waterfall refers to the reflection of the moon captured on the surface of the water. 

Ginkaku-ji

Autumn moon, the harvest moon, was celebrated with popular moon-viewing parties, offerings of sweet potatoes, cakes and miscanthus grass, poetry and dances.  

Karetaki

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden is a small gem in central Tokyo. Dating back to the 1680s, Edo period, it develops around a central pond inspired by a Chinese lake. It is a pleasant place to take a stroll with its trees, seasonal flowers, islands,  rocks and small hills, vantage points to discover the garden from different points of view.

At the feet of the Ōyama mountain, the highest hill in the garden, a dry waterfall, Karetaki, is suggested by rocky hills crossed by a sinuous path where evergreen shrubs trickle down as fresh water in a mountain gorge.

Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden 

Photos: 

TravelinaGarden, November 2015 Kyoto, Tokyo.
painting:
Landscape with Waterfall, Nakabayashi Chikutō (Japanese, 1776–1853), 1841
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
https://www.metmuseum.org/

Further reading:
Japanese Gardens, Gunter Nitschke, Hohenzollernring, Germany: Taschen, 1991
Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shrane, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012 

Real and imaginary: the Eighteenth century at Villa Pisani, Stra.

It is easy to imagine elegant ladies with voluminous eighteenth century dresses strolling in small brigades  in the park at Villa Pisani in the small town of Stra, near Padua.

It is easy to imagine a sparkling and whimsical life taking place in the 114 rooms of the imposing Villa owned by the noble Pisani family, one of the richest and most powerful families in Venice.

"Figure nel parco", Emma Ciardi. Oil on canvas

Just go back to the early eighteenth century, when two brothers, Almoro' and Alvise Pisani, started works to transform their modest country residence along the Brenta River into a princely villa. There were many beautiful villas along the banks of the river, where Venetian nobles and rich merchants spent their summers, but Villa Pisani was the most impressive. Its model was Versailles, visited by Advise Pisani during his stay as Venetian ambassador at the court of King Louis XIV between 1699 and 1703, but adapted to the available space, delimited by a river bend, and, above all, to the family's financial resources. Alvise Pisani was appointed Doge of the Republic of Venice in 1735 and Villa Pisani was completed in 1756, but, by the end of the eighteenth century, the family was in serious financial troubles, worsened by the economical and political decline of the Serenissima.
Alvise had to sell the property to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807. In subsequent years,  new owners succeeded following the turbulent political events, but its original formal design and meaning were not compromised.
Unlike Versailles, they were not connected to the Villa but to the Exedra, an extravagant pavilion with six concave faces crossed by six alleys that disappear in the park. The capricious building is crowned by a terrace, with a perfect round opening in the centre, and six couples of statues, dedicated to the arts, around the balustrade. The Exedra was the focus of the park, the center from which radiated the geometry of alleys and perspectives, and which celebrated not only the power and wealth of the Pisani but the local traditions of leisure, culture and productive activities strictly associated to the Venetian villas.
There were many other interesting things in the park: a coffee house, later surrounded by a ring of water, an intricate maze with central turret, where elegant ladies indulged in loving games, a precious collection of citrus fruits in huge pots, fruits trees and vineyards, statues of ancient gods along the alleys that, through windows and decorated portals in the boundary walls, expanded in the countryside.
The area between the Villa and the sumptuous horse stables, was decorated with a parterre de borderie. Illustrious guests could admire its intricate arabesques from the piano nobile of the Villa. The list of their names is as impressive as the accounts of their fabulous parties, more and more  extravagant while decline inexorably approached.

"Dama in rosa" Emma Ciardi. Oil on canvas, 1909

"Dame in giardino" Emma Ciardi. Oil on canvas, 1916. 

Emma Ciardi did not know this world. Born in Venice in 1879 in a family of solid artistic traditions, she devoted her life to painting, travelling in Italy and abroad to find new inspiration and exhibit her works. She painted Venetian views and landscapes, full of people and movement and she visited the old villas fascinated by their formal gardens. Dark hedges, green architectures, fountains, huge staircases and statues were became the perfect background for delicious figurines of elegant ladies and mysterious men. There are no faces or stories, just shades, lights and bold colour brush strokes to recreate an imaginary life. 

Photos:

"The golden sedan chair", Emma Ciardi. Oil on canvas, 1923

TravelinaGarden, July 2017
paintings by Emma Ciardi (1879-1933):
"Figure nel parco" (Figures in the park), Oil on canvas
https://www.fidesarte.it/
"Dama in rosa" (Lady in pink), Oil on canvas, 1909.
https://www.farsettiarte.it/
"Dame in giardino" (Ladies in the garden), Oil on canvas, 1916
https://www.the-saleroom.com/
"The golden sedan chair" Oil on canvas, 1923
http://www.pandolfini.it/

Links:
Villa Pisani, Stra, Padova
http://www.villapisani.beniculturali.it/

Words in pictures: plants, pots and pedestals, Pingyao, China.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Pingyao, Shanxi, China, April 2017

The Kyoko-chi Pond in the Temple of the Golden Pavillion (Kinkaku-ji) in Kyoto, Japan.

Unlike the thousands of photos that thousands of visitors take every day at Kinkaku-ji Temple in northern Kyoto, the image of the Golden Pavilion is not central in the woodblock print entitled The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) by the Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797–1858). 
The master shows just a glimpse of the dazzling building, seen from the top of the hill behind it, filling the rest of the scene with water, rocks, trees and a mountain in the distance. 

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji), from the series Famous Views of Kyoto, 

Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797–1858), about 1834

The lake, called Kyoko-chi Pond, or Mirror Pond, has a central role in this garden developed by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) as retirement retreat in the early 1390s. 
Large ponds and islands were characteristic elements in ancient Japanese gardens. Inspired by Chinese traditions, they reproduced small-scale natural landscapes imbued with references to the Taoist universe, to the Isles of the Blessed, mountainous islands scattered somewhere along the Chinese coasts where immortal beings live. Later, this vision merged with that of the Buddhist universe, with its nine concentric mountain ranges alternated with eight oceans and Mount Sumeru in the center. 

Dekame-jima and Irikame-jima

This the universe recalled by the Mirror Pond, where the mythological mountains are evoked by rocks and islands concentrated in the inner zone around the Pavilion. 
Some of them have the shape of turtles and cranes, auspicious animals and symbols of long life.  They are active elements in the Taoist universe: the turtles supporting the islands and  the cranes transporting the immortal beings. 

Ashihara-jima

In front of the fishing deck in the rear of the Pavilion, there is a Leaving Turtle Island (Dekame-jima) and an Arriving Turtle Island (Irikame-jima)  while, in the outer zone, a Crane Island (Tsuru-jima) and a Turtle Island (Kame-jima) are surrounded by small rock islands and a larger one representing Japan itself (Ashihara-jima). 
Islands are planted with pines, symbol of longevity and part of the legends. Pruned according to the traditional Japanese technique, niwaki, their branches seem sails unfolded to the wind. The oldest pine in the Garden, more than 600 years old, is called Rikushu-no-matsu. It was a bonsai whose branches were pruned and trained, with the help of a bamboo structure, to resemble a boat ready to set sail for the Mirror Pond in front of it.

Rikushu-no-matsu

The careful use of rocks and pruned trees of different shape and size creates the illusion of a wider space, an illusion that was probably best perceived from the lake. 
As the larger ponds in the ancient gardens, in fact, the Mirror Pond was intended to be navigated to appreciate its rich vegetation, undulated shores and different pavilions. Today, just the Golden Pavilion remains, originally built by the shogun in 1397 as a place to devote himself to arts and meditation, away from demanding court ceremonies and the busy town.


Unlike modern visitors, who are not allowed to enter the Golden Pavilion, there are people watching from its top floors in the print. The view from there must be magnificent, embracing with a glimpse the whole universe in a pond.  

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Kyoto november 2015

print:
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) from the series Famous View of Kyoto Utagawa Hiroshige, ca. 1834
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/mfa/sc134801