Feature Article:
Private Passions, Public Spaces:
Private Collectors and Sculpture Gardens
by Anna Tahinci
. . . Sculpture gardens had already been created in the ancient world by private collectors. During the period of the Roman Empire, garden courts became fashionable as a way for those who had the political or financial power (emperors or patricians) to display their private collections of Greek and Egyptian statues; the garden at Hadrian’s Villa is the best-known example. Pliny the Younger’s letters describing his own gardens (c.100 AD) are the best surviving descriptions of ancient Roman gardens and their use. During the early Renaissance, the recovery of antique statues or fragments encouraged humanists to exhibit them in the manner of ancient times, and numerous gardens were created in this spirit of revival. . . . |
