First of all, study the characteristics of garden development with the historical view of civilized form.
Observing the development of garden art in the development of civilized society, the emergence, development, integration and variation of gardens are also accompanied by the gradual development of social civilization. Taking the artistic development of a small area (a civilization) as an example, the birth of garden art conforms to the characteristics of social and cultural ideology, local climate and geographical environment. With the growth of civilization, it develops continuously and gradually forms the garden art form under this civilized system. The development of civilization is rising in the cycle of constant challenges, so in the development of garden art, there will be the impact and influence of foreign civilizations.
When two civilizations collide with each other, the weak side can't resist the collision of the strong side and the whole line collapses, but this collapse is actually only the collapse of the part of civilization that rules the weak side, which brings the civilization that the weak side fully accepts the strong side. However, it is obvious that this unconditional acceptance can not adapt to the conditions of the variation of primitive civilization, and this all-round acceptance is only manifested in the users of the dominant civilization, that is, the so-called ruling class culture, which is mainly manifested in the royal gardens. As a weak force within civilization, that is, civilian culture, is usually reflected in the private gardens of some rich gentry. They have not suffered so much impact in this collision, so they have the space and spare capacity to accept this challenge, make relative challenges and develop freely. Subvert this foreign culture, absorb the elements that can be used by itself, inject it into the local civilization, follow the process of variation, integration, inspection and gradual progress, and finally form a form that fully adapts to the local civilization. In this process, the form of civilization has been influenced from bottom to top, and the top-down feedback exchange, under the interaction of social superstructure and economic base, finally completed this transformation and formed the local garden art form.
The large-scale development of garden art has experienced a cyclical process of origin-growth-decline-disintegration. When the weak party goes through the above transformation, the strong party will also reach its peak due to civilization, and at the same time, there will be no opponents in a certain range, showing a stagnant state of development, gradually losing the ability to solve problems by itself and beginning to decline. Strong edges and weak edges travel on curves with different waveforms. The peak of the strong side is the bottom of the weak side. When the strong side passes the peak, it will show a downward trend. The curve rebounding from the bottom of the valley intersects the weak side at a certain point. After crossing the intersection, the strong side tends to the bottom, the weak side tends to the peak, and then the power shifts. It is hard to say who will win the final victory in the contest between these two kinds of garden art and culture. The two sides just March on curves with different waveforms, compare their strength at one point and exchange their strength at the next. So when the weak party finally reached its peak at a certain point and became the strong one at that time, a new round of dominance of garden art came into being.
In this way, the curves of different waveforms keep moving along the time axis in a large range. In the process of progress, they influence each other, and finally tend to the same waveform curve, and jointly complete the final Datong. The so-called ultimate great harmony means that all civilizations find a way to advance together and support each other in the process of their own exploration.
However, the civilized movement will not end in the final great harmony. It has been moving internally, and the convergence over a period of time is only a process, and it will not end there unless the carrier of civilization-human beings or advanced creatures are completely extinct. So what is the result of this constant movement? Toynbee did not continue to describe it in his book Historical Research. The author makes a bold assumption here: just like the plate movement of the earth, starting from a complete plate, huge external and internal forces cause the large plate to split into many small plates, and each small plate keeps moving, which may be combined into a complete plate one day. This kind of natural force is not what we can predict, but we can predict that the ultimate great harmony is not the ultimate destination of the curve of the rise and fall of civilization, but perhaps only the last paragraph in each cycle. As long as human beings as carriers of civilization continue to survive, then this cycle can last forever. As for the situation at the end of this cycle, it is hard to imagine now. And this cycle has big and small. Therefore, if this concept is extended to the field of garden art, the continuous development of garden may return to the same line after a period of one after another and a hundred schools of thought contend, or it may be divided into curves with different waveforms in the monotonous line of Datong due to internal shocks, that is, garden art forms under different cultures, and continue to develop.
Secondly, take the development of Lenotel Garden in France as an example.
Throughout the historical development process of garden art, it is characterized by this gradual and alternating development form. The following will take the garden development in France as an example to illustrate the characteristics of garden development.
In the early Renaissance, due to the unique geographical conditions, Italy formed a unique garden style-terrace garden. This style of garden is generally divided into several layers according to the mountain situation. The main buildings of manor villas are often planted with flowers and shrubs in the middle or upper floors and the lower floors, and most of them are in a regular pattern. Pay attention to the transition between regular gardens and natural scenery, that is, gradually weaken its regular style from the part near the building to the natural scenery. Because there are many Italian mountain springs, which are convenient for water diversion and landscaping, water features are often regarded as the main scenery in the park, and there are many waterfalls and fountains for water management. Plants are mainly evergreen trees, including heather, boxwood and coral trees. In terms of planting methods, the whole tree altar and boxwood hedge are used to obtain the effect of overlooking the beautiful pattern, and colorful flowers are rarely used. The whole garden is based on green, giving people a comfortable and quiet feeling.
As the Renaissance spread all over the European continent, Italian culture, as the birthplace of the Renaissance, was accepted by the upper class in Europe at that time and became the mainstream culture. Royal gardens all over the world are proud of imitating Italian gardening methods. France, which was exposed to Italian Renaissance culture in the war with Italy, was influenced by its architecture and garden art from then on. But is the Italian terrace courtyard really suitable for the plain terrain of France? After a long period of pure imitation in the early French Renaissance, Lenotel appeared during the reign of Louis XIV. The master came from a family in Yuanding and began to show his talents very early. From becoming famous for designing the garden of Weikang Mansion to forming a unique gardening style, he really changed the state of pure imitation in the early stage of French gardening art. France has moderate rainfall, mild climate and many deciduous and broad-leaved plants, all of which determine that simply imitating Italian gardens cannot fully show the romantic and unrestrained national cultural characteristics of France. Italian terraced gardens are produced in view of Italy's hilly terrain and obvious changes, but most parts of France are vast plains. Therefore, in most of Lenotel's works, deciduous forests are often used as jungle backgrounds, and boxwood and yew are widely used as patterned tree altars. Commonly used flower beds with patterns, pay attention to color changes, and often use flat lawns and dense forests to set off gorgeous flower beds. Gardens are mostly rivers and pools formed in waterscape. The garden of Weikang Mansion is a masterpiece of Lenotel, and the Palace of Versailles he built for Louis XIV embodies the peak level of French gardens. This original ecological garden with strong national characteristics soon replaced the courtyard that was not suitable for the geographical characteristics and customs of the country. Based on the basic law of survival of the fittest, French geometric gardening technology gradually gained the upper hand in France, surpassing Italian terraced gardening technology, which further influenced Italy and even swept the whole of Europe.
From the perspective of cultural morphology, it is not difficult to find that the prosperity of French gardens and the decline of Italian gardens in the late Renaissance are actually just a phenomenon reflected by garden art in the process of marching along the curve of civilization rise and fall. Through the ever-changing appearance of garden forms, we can see that their development actually follows this curve, which is inevitable by accident. Accidentality refers to the specific way this curve travels, and it must mean knowing the general direction of the curve from the beginning of things. In other words, the curve of the rise and fall of civilization has long been characterized, and its ups and downs and its waveform direction have been roughly clear at the origin of this curve. But its quantification is random and variable, and any accidental person or thing may change the slope of this curve, leading to a series of changes in appearance. The nature of French culture, as well as the flat and vast landscape of France, was influenced by Italian gardens from the beginning, which doomed that it could not accept this garden form intact. This indicates that in the ups and downs of the garden development curve, French gardens will first go through a period of decline, then rebound at a certain valley, achieve a rebound, and gradually reach the peak. But when it will rebound and how the slope of this curve is, everything is still unknown before Lenotel appears. However, if Lenotel did not appear, there would still be a creator who saved French gardens. However, Lenotel's success is actually an inevitable result to some extent. If his works are not so in line with French culture, then it is impossible to get the favor of Louis XIV and finally conquer the whole French garden community if they adapt to the natural conditions in France.
Let's look at the prosperity of French gardens, which is the gradual prosperity of French civilization in Europe and gradually replaces the leading position of Italian civilization in the early Renaissance. It is popular in European civilization with its rich royal characteristics and magnificent momentum. The rise and fall of civilization is guided by the rise and fall of various cultural expressions. This is not only reflected in a series of national strength indicators such as politics, economy and military affairs, but also in the aggressiveness of cultural carriers such as literature, music and architecture. Therefore, it is easy to find that when a country and a civilization flourish, the neighboring countries and civilizations will be unconsciously invaded by culture. Just like the trend of the rise and fall curve of civilization was analyzed before.
With the popularity of Lenotel in France, his name is gradually known abroad. Lenotel himself went to England and Italy, where he transplanted and spread Lenotel-style gardens. Secondly, related gardening books also spread the information of French gardens in Britain. At that time, French gardening books were widely circulated among the British people, which can be seen from the fact that many books written in Britain quoted French books. In Britain, from Lenotel's visit to sending gardeners to France to translate and publish gardening works. Although various means have been used to try to spread and transplant French gardens, no garden works have ever grasped the spiritual essence of Lenotel-style gardens and expressed it. The primary reason for this situation was that Britain had not got rid of the shackles of Puritanism at that time, and at the same time, Britain's national strength was still behind France. In addition, the British love modeling trees and exquisite hydraulic facilities, which paved the way for the gradual withdrawal of French gardens from the historical stage in the future.