Renaissance Gardens – Italy

About the exhibition
This was the last in a series of ‘Teaching Exhibitions’ mounted at the Exhibition Gallery, which had opened in 1975 as an integral part of the newly launched Department of Visual Arts at Monash University. These exhibitions were designed primarily as a teaching resource and directly related to courses taught in the department, particularly the history of art and architecture. Renaissance Gardens—Italy documented over a dozen significant garden designs in large-scale photographic reproductions of maps and site plans, illustrations, engravings, and watercolour sketches. These displays were augmented with a slide show, potted plants and Renaissance music playing in the gallery. The exhibition sought to demonstrate the interrelationship of gardens and the villas or palaces located in them as an important aspect of the Renaissance, where, as Stendhal put it, ‘architecture is wedded to the trees’ .

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^{Image: School of Antonio Vivarini Attrib., The Garden of Love c.1470, oil, tempera and gold on spruce panel, 152.5 x 239 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest 1948}