Gardens sacred allegorical, and real - Report from Europe - gardens, Musee national du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny, Paris, France - Brief Article

Magazine Antiques, August, 2002 by Miriam Kramer

Gardens played an important role, both allegorical and actual, in medieval life. This is the subject of a major exhibition on view until September 16 at the Musee national du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny in Paris. Entitled Sur la terre comme au ciel: Jardins d'Occident a la fin du Moyen Age (On earth as in heaven: Western European gardens in the late Middle Ages), the show is intended to coincide with the flowering of the gardens around the museum, which were inspired by their medieval counterparts. Elisabeth Antoine, the curator of the show, has assembled about one hundred works, including illuminated manuscripts, engravings, painted panels, tapestries, and objects from archaeological sites, to evoke aspects of late medieval gardens and their symbolic meanings for those who planted them.

The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first is devoted to the sacred garden, from the lost paradise of the Garden of Eden to the garden as a symbol of the soul. At the time, the Virgin Mary was compared to an enclosed garden, and this theme is illustrated with representations of the Virgin and Child in a paradise garden. The second section treats the allegorical garden created in literature, in particular the garden of love that mingled the sacred and profane in a rather ambiguous way. The third section looks at the everyday reality of late medieval gardens by showing their characteristic features, what gardeners did, what tools they used, and the growing princely interest in botany.

An exhibition catalogue in French, edited by the curator, is distributed by Seuil and may be ordered by telephoning 33-1-53-73-78-00.