Poètes au jardin. De Pétrarque à Shakespeare – Pau (France)
Poets in the garden. From Petrarch to Shakespeare
The Renaissance period contributed to the development of the art and science of gardens. This exhibition highlights the arts and poetry over an original discovery of the perception of gardens by medieval authors. In the wider sense, the Renaissance encouraged the development of garden art and science over a great wealth of methods and varieties. Their development and their transformation – but also their role in humanistic thought – over several generations, combined towards the elaboration of novel aesthetic principles, from the late 14th to the early 17th century.
Through the pure expression of their art and the depth of their intimate experience, seven poets that lived over the long period marked by the Renaissance, opening with Francesco Petrarch and concluding with William Shakespeare, all indulged in the charms of the garden, be it in their private circles or their service to and praise of princely property owners.
Renaissance gardens went through constant and abundant transformations – from the medieval legacy to new forms of representation and new knowledge, new thoughts, sensitivities, all materialising their capacity to stimulate, or even prefigure poetry.
Within the space of two and a half centuries, over the successive triumphs of garden art per se, it is also the literary lives of a few famous works that the exhibition hopes to bring to light.
Musée national et domaine du Château de Pau
Château de Pau
rue du château
64000 Pau
