The design and construction of gardens and the cultivation of flowers have been major pastimes in virtually all civilizations of the Near and Far East for centuries. The authors discuss the history and influence of these gardens as depicted in Oriental paintings and prints.
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From Publishers Weekly:
This pretty picture book only flirts with garden history. Despite the caveat, it's a pleasant and valuable survey of gardens in Asian art. Titley, former curator of Turkish and Persian manuscripts in the British Library Oriental Collections, and Wood, head of the Chinese Section in the British Library Oriental Collection, have marshalled an impressive and beautiful series of 120 illustrations (Mughal paintings, Chinese prints), added a good deal of their own expertise on Ottoman Turkey, Iran, India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia and offered a detailed account of the different purposes that gardens served in these cultures. The longest chapters treat the rich history of gardening in China and Japan and the evolution there of large "parks" for hunting and relaxation into more intimate spaces for meditation. Both traditions share such features as bonsai ( pen cai in China), tea houses and water gardens and yielded the first gardening manuals as merchants and government officials began to imitate imperial (and in Japan religious) examples.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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