Persian Gardens
Luke Anstee
Assignment 1 – An illustrated academic essay on ‘An exploration of the historic and contemporary garden and landscape design culture of Persia.
Introduction
The gardens of Persia have a history of over two thousand five hundred years. As the Empire grew and sophisticated the ideas spread creating a very recognisable stylistic form of garden. (Le Notre (No Date Given)
Amazingly this style has remained much the same to this day, firstly and perhaps most obviously because it works so well in the context.
In this report I’ll be exploring the Persian Garden style and its common features, why the ideas developed. I’ll then look at the common types of Persian Garden, and conclude by comparing a historical and modern example of a Persian Garden.
Elements of a Persian garden
The basic structure of a Persian garden is known as a quadripartite, which simply means divided into 4, the four sections are divided by water and pathways, usually with some form of pool or fountain in the centre. These pathways are classically lined with rows of trees on either side.
They commonly integrate indoors with outdoors through the connection of a surrounding garden with an inner courtyard space, and designers often place architectural elements such as vaulted arches between the outer and interior areas to open up the divide between them.
They are usually situated on a slight slope, and largely oriented north-south, the larger gardens often open on to the surrounding landscape.
The oldest descriptions and illustrations of Persian gardens come from travellers who reached Iran from the west. The earliest in the fourteenth century, but it wasn’t until the 17th century and explorer called Kaempfer made ...
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...teiner Graphics (No Date Given) Iranian Park [www.Image]. http://www.steinergraphics.com/persiangarden/sliding_mitra/index.html (Accessed 30th April 2014)
Vision in consciousness (No date given) Modified by author. Map of the extents of Ancient Persia [www. Image]. http://www.visioninconsciousness.org/Ancient_Civilizations_12.htm (Accessed 30th April 2014)
Wikipedia (2008) File:Naranjestan e Qavam Yard.jpg [www.Image]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naranjestan_e_Qavam_Yard.jpg (Accessed 30th April 2014)
Wikipedia (2009) File:Taj01.jpg [www.Image]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taj01.jpg (Accessed 30th April 2014)
Wikipedia (2011) File:PersianGarden.png [www.Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PersianGarden.png (Accessed 30th April 2014)
Wikipedia (2014) Persian Gardens [www.Document]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_gardens (Accessed 2nd May 2014)
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 B.C.). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
In the following essay, I will be comparing the Hagia Sophia in the City of Istanbul, and the Suleymaniye Mosque of Istanbul. Both of these pieces of art are very significant to the in modern-day Turkey. The art pieces will be covered in more detail further on in this comparative essay, and finally, I will be judging the pieces at the end of this essay
Bihzad has placed strong emphasis on the complexity of the palace’s architecture which he has adorned with colorful ornaments and emblazoned with gold. Each room is decorated with rugs and tiles featuring complex floral and asymmetrical patterns that cover each chamber from floor to ceiling. The palace appears to be three stories tall and features a balcony on the left and a zigzagging staircase on the right. The asymmetrical style of these two architectural features gives the impression of the work being 3-dimensional ...
Emboden, William A. Leonardo da Vinci on Plants and Gardens. Vol.1. Portland, Oregon: Dioscorides Press, 1987. 10-190. Print.
Brockman, Norbert C. “Sacred Groves.” World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
vol. 31, New Haven, Conn., Department of Antiquities of the Government of Iraq and the American Schools of Oriental Research, p. 133 (# 56). 1965,
In the beginning of the classical period we began to see the first workings of a vast network of roads. One of the most important, was the Persian Royal Road. These trade routes spanned from Susa in Persia to Sardis in Anatolia, and were around 1600 miles long. Other than the Royal Road, they began to build large trading ships and developed sea-lanes through the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and the Red Sea, which brought people together from such places and Egypt, India, and Greece.1 This was mostly done by King Darius in the 5th century BCE. Darius was a king with many accomplishments, and was known for his administrative abilities. He applied many policies that promoted trade because he realized that trade helped to hold together an empire. Showing off more of his administrative and organizational skills he divided the Persian Empire into Satrapies, developed a banking and systemized taxing system, and built the magnificent capital, Persepolis. For the first time coins and weights of a standardized value circulated throughout the empire.2 Darius attributes his rise to the throne and success in reorganizing the Persian Empire to the faith Zoroastrianism.3
The first images of the garden are seen through the exaggerated imagination of a young child. “” are as “ as flowers on Mars,” and cockscombs “ the deep red fringe of theater curtains.” Fr...
The Oriental Institute featured an exhibit focused on the development of ancient Middle East Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East 1919–20 January 12 - August 29, 2010. And this was the exhibit I found most intriguing and most i...
Nagle, D. Brendan. “The Second Persian Invasion” The Ancient World; A social and Cultural History. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Despite these differences in presentation, design, and the relationships between the garden, viewer, and the architecture, the general goals of both garden types are inherently the same. In the Japanese tradition, these gardens are meant to function as aids in understanding one form or another. In addition, both demonstrate the emphasis on the relationship between humankind and nature—perhaps one of the most important elements of Japanese art and architecture. Bibliography:.. A. K. Davision, The Art of the Zen Garden.
When walking around a city, you may notice that the architecture and art look similar to other works. Many of these designs have changed along the course of history and time whilst others have not. The designs that many people still see in society and day to day living is from two of the many cultures of the old civilizations, Roman and Islamic. The art and architecture forms from the Islamic and Roman cultures have many comparisons and contrasts between them. They, the Islamic and Roman nations, have both adopted from other cultures and have made their own discoveries in the art and architecture worlds. The Roman and Islamic architecture and art vary drastically from each other and yet have varying comparisons between the two.
In the following essay, I will be comparing and contrasting to architectural pieces by the Indians. The first is the Taj Mahal, a building constructed from white marble that took seventeen years to build in honor of Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal (Z. Haq). This piece of architectural beauty belonged to the Mughal’s, the Muslim emperors in India (Z. Haq). The second is the Great Stupa at Sanchi, a holy, dome shaped structure that covers the body of the Buddha in honor of him and his contributions to Buddhism (Fischer, Julia). Furthermore, this structure was made of ruins, rocks, mud, and covered in bricks (Fischer, Julia). Both pieces of architecture are significant to the Indians, however they do contrast in some ways.
Architecture of the Geometric and Orientalizing periods had mostly made out of a simple structure made of mud bricks and rubbles. They were generally built on an east-west axis with an entrance and a columned entry. However, in rectangular temples, the two sidewalls stood beyond the front wall to form an entrance. In the rooms, a single row of wooden columns with the main axis supported the wooden beams of the gable roof. (J. J. Coulton, 1977) Not only the temples and houses were built with mud brick, but also the graves erected in the Geometric and Orientalizing periods were also built in the similar style and method. The small rectangular earth mounds in the Geometric period assumed as a monumental form with walls of mud-brick protected by a jutting cornice of slabs and surmounted by a flat or shallow pitched roof. (M. Andronikos) The whole structure was coated with mud painted decoration.
The Harappan civilization, which emerged in 3300 B.C.E, is, for a variety of reasons, one of the most intriguing civilizations that have ever existed. It stretched along the Indus River Valley, from Pakistan to Afghanistan. This civilization, which was made up of a large number of small communities, was technologically very advanced, and, indeed, included many of the features of the society that we have today. The Harappans were one of the first to have a system of writing, which, however, historians have not yet been able to translate. Nevertheless, the society has left us numerous ruins, which provide much information about it. (See Appendix 1A) Harappa, an Indus River Valley civilization, whose written records we have not yet been able to translate, has nonetheless left some remains that help us understand the society’s urban planning, trade, lifestyle, agriculture and mortality rate.