Italian Villas and their Gardens (1904)

Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish

To the left, we show a copy of Italian Villas the their Garden, as illustrated by Maxfield Parrish and co-published by John Lane, The Bodley Head (London) and The Century Co. (New York) in 1905.   This example retains the original gilt- and multicolour-stamped green cloth cover.             On the right, we show the Title Page as decorated by Parrish - a feature that was reserved for those books carrying the John Lane, The Bodley Head citation.

Italian Villas and their Gardens (1904) is the 1st Edition of Wharton's work on the architecture and design of classic Italian

gardens. Her Introduction provides an interesting insight to her intentions and motivations in this work.

Parrish's accompanying images - produced in colour and monotone - present a striking visual illustration of the comments

within Wharton's treatise.

Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints

We have prepared sets of 15 Greeting Cards displaying each of the major colour images from Italian Villas and their Gardens (1904) and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear. Ordering one of those sets is as easy as selecting the "Add to Cart" feature below and following the prompts provided with our Shopping Cart secured through PayPal. Multiple purchases will be consolidated by that feature and shipping and handling costs to any destination in the world are accommodated by our flat-rate fee of US$20 for every US$200 worth of purchases.     Code: MP IVG CS(15) Price: US$75.00

In addition, we have prepared sets of 11 Greeting Cards displaying each of the major monotone images from Parriahs for Italian Villas and their Gardens (1904) and on the right, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear. Again, ordering one of those sets is as easy as selecting the "Add to Cart" feature below and following the prompts provided with our Shopping Cart secured through PayPal.         Code: MP IVG MS(11) Price: US$55.00

When presented on Greeting Cards, these images are prepared as tipped-on plates - in hommage to the hand-crafted

approach typical of prestige illustrated publications produced in the early decades of the 20th Century.

Hand-finishing is used to replicate the visual appearance of a tipped-on plate and the images are presented on

Ivory card stock (in the case of colour illustrations) or White card stock (in the case of monotone illustrations)

with an accompanying envelope. We have left the cards blank so that you may write your own personal

message.

Should you wish to order a Reproduction Print or an individual Greeting Card from this suite of images, we have

provided options below. Of course, should you require a customised preparation, we welcome your contact through

ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com.

In the meantime, enjoy perusing these wonderful images from Maxfield Parrish.

The illustrations reproduced in colour

Villa Campi, near Florence	Boboli Garden, Florence	Villa Gamberaia, near Florence	Vicobello, Siena
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C1 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C2 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C3 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C4 12x18 Price: US$60.00
La Palazzina (Villa Gori), Siena	The Theatre at La Palazzina, Siena	Villa Medici, Rome	Villa Chigi, Rome
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C5 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C6 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C7 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C8 12x18 Price: US$60.00
Villa d'Este, Tivoli	The Pool, Villa d'Este, Tivoli	Villa Scassi, Genoa	Villa Cicogna, from the Terrace above the House
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C9 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C10 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C11 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C12 12x18 Price: US$60.00
Villa Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore	In the Gardens of Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore	Villa Pliniana, Lake Como
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C13 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C14 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG C15 12x18 Price: US$60.00

The illustrations reproduced in monotone

The Reservoir, Villa Falconieri, Frascati	The Cascade, Villa Torlonia, Frascati	Villa Corsini, Florence	The Dome of St Peter's, from the Vatican Gardens
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M1 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M2 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M3 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M4 12x18 Price: US$60.00
Villa Pia - In the Gardens of the Vatican	Villa Lante, Bagnaia	A Garden Niche, Villa Scassi, Genoa	Gateway of the Botanic Gardens, Padua
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M5 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M6 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M7 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M8 12x18 Price: US$60.00
View at Val San Zibio, near Battaglia	Val San Zibio, near Battaglia	Villa Valmarana, Vincenza
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M9 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M10 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: MP IVG M11 12x18 Price: US$60.00

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Edith Wharton's Introduction to Italian Villas and their Gardens

Though it is an exaggeration to say that there are no flowers in Italian gardens, yet to enjoy and appreciate the Italian

garden-craft one must always bear in mind that it is independent of floriculture.

The Italian garden does not exist for its flowers; its flowers exist for it: they are a late and infrequent adjunct to its beauties,

a parenthetical grace counting only as one more touch in the general effect of enchantment. This is no doubt partly

explained by the difficulty of cultivating any but spring flowers in so hot and dry a climate, and the result has been a

wonderful development of the more permanent effects to be obtained from the three other factors in garden-composition -

marble, water and perennial verdure - and the achievement, by their skilful blending, of a charm independent of the

seasons.

It is hard to explain to the modern garden-lover, whose whole conception of the charm of gardens is formed of successive

pictures of flower-loveliness, how this effect of enchantment can be produced by anything so dull and monotonous as a

mere combination of clipped green and stone-work.

The traveller returning from Italy, with his eyes and imagination full of the ineffable Italian garden-magic, knows vaguely

that the enchantment exists; that he has been under its spell, and that it is more potent, more enduring, more intoxicating to

every sense than the most elaborate and glowing effects of modern horticulture; but he may not have found the key to the

mystery. Is it because the sky is bluer, because the vegetation is more luxuriant? Our midsummer skies are almost as deep,

our foliage is as rich, and perhaps more varied; there are, indeed, not a few resemblances between the North American

summer climate and that of Italy in spring and autumn.

Some of those who have fallen under the spell are inclined to ascribe the Italian garden-magic to the effect of time; but,

wonder-working as this undoubtedly is, it leaves many beauties unaccounted for. To seek the answer one must go deeper:

the garden must be studied in relation to the house, and both in relation to the landscape. The garden of the Middle Ages,

the garden one sees in old missal illuminations and in early woodcuts, was a mere patch of ground within the castle

precincts, where "simples" were grown around a central well-head and fruit was espaliered against the walls. But in the rapid

flowering of Italian civilization the castle walls were soon thrown down, and the garden expanded, taking in the fish-pond,

the blowing-green, the rose-arbour and the clipped walk. The Italian country house, especially in the centre and the south

of Italy, was almost always built on a hillside, and one day the architect looked forth from the terrace of his villa, and saw

that, in his survey of the garden, the enclosing landscape was naturally included: the two formed a part of the same

composition.

The recognition of this fact was the first step in the development of the great garden-art of the Renaissance: the next was

the architect's discovery of the means by which nature and art might be fused in his picture. He had now three problems to

deal with: his garden must be adapted to the architectural lines of the house it adjoined; it must be adapted to the

requirements of the inmates of the house, in the sense of providing shady walks, sunny bowling-greens, parterres and

orchards, all conveniently accessible; and lastly it must be adapted to the landscape around it. At no time and in no country

has this triple problem been so successfully dealt with as in the treatment of the Italian country house from the beginning of

the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century; and in the blending of different elements, the subtle transition from the

fixed and formal lines of art to the shifting and irregular lines of nature, and lastly in the essential convenience and

liveableness of the garden, lies the fundamental secret of the old garden-magic.

However much other factors may contribute to the total impression of charm, yet by eliminating them one after another,

by thinking away the flowers, the sunlight, the rich tinting of time, one finds that, underlying all these, there is the deeper

harmony of design which is independent of any adventitious effects. This does not imply that a plan of an Italian garden is

as beautiful as the garden itself. The more permanent materials of which the latter is made - the stonework, the evergreen

foliage, the effects of rushing or motionless water, above all the lines of the natural scenery - all form a part of the artist's

design. But these things are as beautiful at one season as at another; and even these are but the accessories of the

fundamental plan. The inherent beauty of the garden lies in the grouping of its parts - in the converging lines of its long

ilex-walks, the alternation of sunny open spaces with cool woodland shade, the proportion between terrace and

bowling-green, or between the height of a wall and the width of a path. None of these details was negligible to the

landscape-architect of the Renaissance: he considered the distribution of shade and sunlight, of straight lines of masonry

and ripples lines of foliage, as carefully as he weighed the relation of his whole composition to the scene about it.

Then, again, any one who studies the old Italian gardens will be struck with the way in which the architect broadened and

simplified his plan if it faced a grandiose landscape. Intricacy of detail, complicated groupings of terraces, fountains,

labyrinths and porticoes, are found in sites where there is no great sweep of landscape attuning the eye to larger

impressions. The farther north one goes, the less grad the landscape becomes and the more elaborate the garden. The

great pleasure-grounds overlooking the Roman Campagna are laid out on severe and majestic lines: the parts are few;

the total effect is one of breadth and simplicity.

It is because, in the modern revival of gardening, so little attention has been paid to these first principles of the art that the

garden-lover should not content themselves with a vague enjoyment of old Italian gardens, but should try to extract from

them principles which may be applied at home. He should observe, for instance, that the old Italian garden was meant to

be lived in - a use to which, at least in America, the modern garden is seldom put. He should note that, to this end, the

grounds were as carefully and conveniently planned as the house, with broad paths (in which two or more could go

abreast) leading from one division to another; with shade easily accessible from the house, as well as a sunny sheltered

walk for winter; and with effective transitions from the dusk of wooded alleys to open flowery spaces or to the level sward

of the bowling-green. He should remember that the terraces and formal gardens adjoined the house, that the ilex or laurel

walks beyond were clipped into shape to effect a transition between the straight lines of masonry and the untrimmed

growth of the woodland to which they led, and that each step away from architecture was a nearer approach to nature.

The cult of the Italian garden has spread from England to America, and there is a general feeling that, by placing a marble

bench here and a sun-dial there, Italian "effects" may be achieved. The results produced, even where much money and

thought have been expended, are not altogether satisfactory; and some critics have then inferred that the Italian garden is

to speak, untranslatable, that is cannot be adequately rendered in another landscape and another age.

Certain effects, those which depend on architectural grandeur as well as those due to colouring and age, are not doubt

unattainable; but there is, non the less, much to be learned from the old Italian gardens, and the first lesson is that, if they

are to be a real inspiration, they must be copies, not in the letter but in the spirit. That is, a marble sarcophagus and a

dozen twisted columns will not make an Italian garden; but a piece of ground laid out and planted on the principles of the

old garden-craft will be, not indeed an Italian garden in the literal sense, but what is far better, a garden as well adapted

to its surroundings as were the models which inspired it.

This is the secret to be learned from the villas of Italy; and no one who has looked at them with this object in view will be

content to relapse into vague admiration of their loveliness. As Browning, in passing Cape St Vincent and Trafalgar Bay,

cried out:

"Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?" - say,

so the garden-lover, who longs to transfer something of the old garden-magic to his own patch of ground at home, will

ask himself, in wandering under the umbrella-pines o the Villa Borghese, or through the box-parterres of the Villa Lante:

What can I bring away from here? And the more he studies and compares, the more inevitably will the answer be: "Not

this or that amputated statue, or broken bas-relief, or fragmentary effect of any sort, but a sense of the informing spirit -

an understanding of the gardener's purpose, and of the uses to which he meant his garden to be put."

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