Towards The Parterre

The Villa Gamberaia is located in the elevated town of Settignano, rising high above the city of Florence, Italy. Built in the seventeenth century, it was a popular destination during the early part of the twentieth century for artists, writers and garden designers. It is an excellent example of a structured Renaissance style garden.

The magnificent gardens were firmly at the top of my seekers list and I had the great fortune to explore and draw in the formal, atmospheric gardens when they were empty of visitors in the spring of 2012.

The Renaissance style garden was conceived as an extension of the villa, incorporating a series of green rooms which included classical statues, enigmatic fountains and grottoes, all steeped in symbolism and allegory. As I moved through the gardens of the Gamberaia I was acutely aware of the shift in atmosphere within the distinctly designed areas.

The guardianship of the Villa Gamberaia gardens passed through several hands and in 1896 Catherine Jeanne Kesko (also known as Princess Ghyka) purchased the property. She flooded the dramatic rose parterres to create mirrored pools which reflect the sky and bring an atmospheric dimension to the space.

Ghyka was complimented for her sensitive handling of the garden’s renovation. She and her companion Artist Florence Blood who also lived at the villa-

“were not afraid to show that the world has gone forward, and that today can add beauty even to the most beautiful creations of yesterday.“

The resulting series of drawings and paintings focus upon the distinct compartments and features within the garden, each one moving in and out of focus, taking the viewer on a virtual journey through the gardens. Using antique optical lenses to create distortion and ambiguity, the drawings are gardens of the imagination, theatrical spaces to provoke the wonder and delight that a garden can offer a lone visitor.