The art historian Erik de Jong is the leading expert on Dutch garden and landscape architecture. He holds the Artis Culture, Landscape and Nature chair at the University of Amsterdam. He has previously published De Gouden Eeuw van de Hollandse tuinkunst (The Anglo-Dutch Garden in the Age of William and Mary).
(Thoth, 1993, 264 pages)
During the Renaissance, nature was seen as a book crammed with moral and religious lessons. Those with the right approach could read nature like the Bible. Nature was created by God, and man, for his part, can create nature in the form of gardens. Moreover, the landscape designer can fill gardens, that is, cultivated nature, with hidden messages. The ideal is a perfect balance between nature and nurture, between carefully planned groups of trees, shrubs, flowerbeds, paths and ponds on the one hand, and such artefacts as statues, urns, fountains and grottos on the other.
