UNITED KINGDOM SUMMER PEARLS: London's architectural gems along the banks of the Thames
MUSIC: Europe's best pop and rock gatherings
BAGPIPES: The plaintive sounds of Scotland
SUBMARIUM: Journey to the bottom of the sea FESTIVALS: Fun in the sun in West Belfast
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FRANCE and SWITZERLAND VULCANIA: Blow your top at France's volcano park
ART: Berthe Morisot, the unknown Impressionist
FESTIVALS: Aix-en-Provence has it all
ART: The Barbizon School painters come to life
ART: Take a stroll through medieval gardens of delight
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SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY and GREECE SALAMANCA: The city splashes out on culture
MUSIC: God's rock stars: the singing Greek monks
FOOD: Italy's unusual culinary delights
FILM: Great outdoor viewing in Rome
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GERMANY and BENELUX HORTICULTURE: The world blossoms at Floriade
BRUGGE: Belgium's second city shines
ART: Berlin's homage to multiculturalism ART: The best of the world's artists on show at Documenta 11 DANCE: Czech twin ballerinos steal the show in Hamburg MORE ..
CENTRAL and EASTERN EUROPE ART: Yugoslavia's modern art museum is back
ART: A retrospective of Samizdat art and writing from the Communist bloc
GRAZ: Austria's little-known city of culture
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THE NORDIC REGION DESIGN: Denmark celebrates Arne Jacobsen
MUSEUM: Get a blast from the past at Stalin World
STOCKHOLM: Welcome to the Venice of the North
MUSIC: Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on tour MORE ..
PLUS LISTINGS: Other things to see and do in each region
Medieval gardens bloom again in a stunning new show
In the turbulent world of medieval Europe, when constant warfare and terrible plagues vied with chivalrous honor and courtly love, a garden was a refuge and a solace, a reminder of Eden and paradise lost, a pleasure for the senses and a terrific setting for a tryst. "On Earth as in Heaven: Western European Gardens in the Late Middle Ages," opening June 6 at the National Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, is Europe's first-ever exhibit devoted to medieval gardens, with more than 100 illuminated manuscripts, paintings, engravings, tapestries, archaeological objects and tools. The museum, housed in the splendid 15th century residence of the abbots of Cluny, planted its own small medieval garden two years ago, and the exhibit is meant to coincide with its full summer flowering.
Divided into three sections, the show starts with the heavenly and descends to the mundane: biblical gardens, or the gardens of the soul; romantic gardens, or the gardens of love; and the real-life gardens of royal palaces and regular folks. All are filled with symbols, both sacred and profane.
The biblical gardens are mostly medieval visions of Eden or the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden of the Song of Solomon, seen as a metaphor for the soul. In the Tree of Jesse, a small illustration from the winter breviary of King Philippe le Bon (c. 1450-55), Jesse sleeps on a flower-sprigged lawn squared off by a medieval grass-topped banquette while his ornate genealogical tree blossoms into a Madonna surrounded by courtly musicians with lyre and lute. A 3.8-m-long tapestry, Hortus Conclusus: Allegory of the Incarnation (Basle, 1480), depicts a garden encircled by crenelated walls with towers and gates, teeming with rabbits and unicorns and strewn with flowers identified by the virtues they symbolize: humility, for the violet, is right on, but the lily (labeled as charity) and the red rose (chastity) seem to have suffered a switch. The show's catalog surmises that perhaps the tapestry weavers put the wrong text with the wrong flower.
Paradise is a lot earthlier in the gardens of love, where spring is eternal, flowers are in full bloom, the sap is always rising and the fruit is always ripe. In idyllic scenes illustrating the songs of the troubadours, the Decameron or the story of Tristan and Isolde, gardens are designed for their appeal to the senses: the scent of lilies, lilacs or exotic spices, the music of birds and the wind in the trees, the harmony of colors, the sweet savor of grapes and honeysuckle, the soft grass and the bed of roses. It's all there for the lords and ladies in the languorous Orchard of Déduit, a jewel-colored miniature from the British Library's sumptuous manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (1490-1500), one of the show's star attractions.
The third section gets down to real dirt, with trowels, hoes and watering cans (once known as chantepleurs, or sing-the-tears). Horticultural illustrations demonstrate grafting and pruning, precise botanical drawings are taken from early 16th century manuscripts of Platearius' Book of Simple Medicines. And as a grand finale, the museum's permanent collection offers the 15th century Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, six of the most magnificent examples of medieval garden ever planted, painted or sewn.
On Earth As In Heaven: Western European Gardens In The Late Middle Ages, National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris • Open:June 6-Sept. 16 • Tickets: adults €6.7, children under 18 free • Phone: +33 (0)1 53 73 78 00 • Website:www.musee-moyenage.fr
