• History and Ideas
  • Prehistory to Middle Ages
  • Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment
  • 19th Century
  • 20th Century
  • From Millennium to Olympics
• The Genius of Place
  • Design and Vision
  • Planning the Landscape
  • Management and Conservation
  • Historic Conservation
  • The Science of Landscape
  • Cities and Towns
  • Gardens and Parks
• The Power to Change
  • Climate Change
  • Sustainable Communities
  • Environment
  • Housing
  • Hunger
  • Transportation

Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment

During the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th Centuries, Western thought shook off the cobwebs of the Middle Ages.

Society began to strive for human perfection, modelled on the ideas of ancient Greece and Rome.  This search for perfection led to ordered, geometric cities, gardens and buildings.

These landscapes became extremely formal and theatrical during the Baroque era of the 17th and 18th Centuries – this can be seen in the great landscape fantasy of Isola Bella in Italy.

In the 18th Century the Enlightenment and the Baroque found its greatest expression in France at the royal gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles  In England, Hampton Court is a fine example.

The English landscape style, championed by Capability Brown, caught on around the world.