Key facts

Type	Weekly Classes
Location	Oxford
Address	Ewert House Ewert Place Summertown Oxford
Dates	Tue 17 Apr to Tue 3 Jul 2012 Day: Tuesday Time of meeting: 10.30-12.30pm Number of meetings: 10
Subject area(s)	Architectural History
CATS points	10
Fees	From £150.00
Application status	In Progress - still open to new applications
Course code	O11P652HCW
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk.

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Overview

The Italian Renaissance took up the idealised rural retreat of ancient Rome with gardens an integral part of villa design. Palladio's influence endured in the Veneto but elaborate Baroque innovations abound in north and south Italy. Expatriates revived and restored these in the twentieth century.

Description

Although ancient Roman gardens were only actually revealed by eighteenth century excavations, their rural eulogies stimulated the Renaissance achievements of the Medici and Papal princes. Extensive allegorical programmes were an integral part of their design as outdoor rooms. In the Veneto, Palladio and others designed a range of villa forms which were superbly decorated by Veronese, Zelloti and the Tiepolo family. Grand baroque achitecture and its counterpart in elaborate formal gardens were subsequently often remodelled as english parkland with neo-classical villas influenced by the discoveries at Pompeii. Both restoration and renewal by enthusiastic German and Anglo-American residents encouraged a great revival of interest and creativity in the twentieth century. Through the extensive use of colour images and plans, the course will review both the development of villa design and the forms of garden with which they have been associated throughout Italy.

Programme details

Week 1: The idealised villa of classical Rome and its archaeological rediscovery
Week 2: Medician villas in Tuscany, their interior decoration and garden designs 1
Week 3: Medician villas in Tuscany, their interior decoration and garden designs 2
Week 4: Suburban villas of Renaissance Rome, their interior décor and gardens
Week 5: The Villa d'Este and Italian Mannerism
Week 6: Baroque gardens of Frascati and Lucca
Week 7: Palladian and neo-Palladian villas of the Veneto, their decoration and gardens
Week 8: Villas and gardens of baroque Naples and Sicily
Week 9: Villa and gardens of the north Italian lakeland
Week 10: The Anglo-American revival of garden design in twentieth century Italy

Background reading:

Ackerman, J. The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses, Thames and Hudson, 1990
Holberton, P. Palladio's Villas: Life in the Renaissance Countryside, John Murray, 1990
Masson, G. Italian Gardens, Thames and Hudson, 1966
Quest-Ritson, C. The English Garden Abroad, Viking 1992

Staff

Course aims

To introduce the idea of the rural retreat and the relationship between villas and their gardens and the ways in which both were developed in style and form in the different regions of Italy.

Course objectives:

1. To outline the idealised conception of the villa as a rural retreat in both ancient classical and more modern times
2. To trace the development of Italian villa and garden design from the Renaissance to the twentieth century in various regions of Italy
3. To indicate the impact of these gardens and villas on, especially, Anglo-American settlement in Italy and the revival of formal garden design

Assessment methods

Assignments will normally take the form of essays on a topic either suggested by the tutor early in the course, or one proposed by a student and discussed with the tutor. A short outline will be expected after the half-term break and then the finished work handed in at the end of term. Some students may like to make a presentation based on a visit and study of a particular Italian garden.

Teaching methods

The main form of teaching will be by lectures illustrated by colour-images, which will take students visually through selected gardens. These will be discussed with reference to plans that will be issued to each student. Questions and points for discussion and clarification will be expected throughout.

Teaching outcomes

1. To understand the relationship between villas and their gardens as exemplified by specific case studies
2. To identify the patterns of garden design of different periods and the ways in which these may be reconfigured in later applications of new garden ideas
3. To read a villa and garden plan and relate them to their 3-dimensional forms and photographic representation

Fee options

Programme Fee

Home/EU Fee: £150.00

Non EU Fee: £150.00

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