포프의 벌링턴에게 부치는 서한시와 자연풍경식 정원

Abstract

This essay is designed to view Pope as a gardener who played a key role in the development of the landscape garden in England. In 18th-century England, the prevailing taste is the formal gardens that derived from France. Le Nôtre is the most famous garden designer standing for the formal gardens. In gardens of this style, everything is layed out according to a strict geometric pattern, divided into symmetrical units composed of parterres, terraces, rectangular pools and fountains, and intersecting avenues of trees. Pope decries this formal garden as too artificial and supports the natural style of garden, saying that we should follow the “amiable Simplicity of unadorned Nature” in gardening. Pope’s idea of this natural gardening is believed to influence the development of landscape gardening and Kent, a famous gardener who insists that nature hates the line. The term landscape gardening implies an association with landscape painting. Pope also says that gardening is like landscape painting. Pope wants to make gardens in terms of a landscape painter’s method. For example, he tries to make gardens like the landscape paintings of Claude Lorrain. His views on gardening are well developed in The Epistle to Burlington. He sees Vitruvius and Palladio as his masters. Vitruvius thinks that garden is an imitation of nature, and firmness, utility and beauty are the three factors in gardening. Pope also tries to live up to these teachings from his master. In this poem, he argues that nature is the most important guiding principle in gardening. Next he argues that the gardener must consult the genius of the place, that is to say, consider the character of the place. And then Pope thinks that gardening is like painting, so the gardener should make his garden as a landscape painter paints a picture by catching special moods. Finally Pope says that it is important to call in the country in the garden. This vision is fulfilled by the introduction of ha-ha or the sunken fence, which was borrowed from the art of fortification and enabled the gardener to open vistas previously shut off fences. What Pope presents as opposed to landscape garden is Timon’s garden. Timon’s garden is an example of formal garden. Timon’s parterre is “a Down”, his lake “an Ocean”. Timon’s garden indicates how nature has been forgotten. Pope is opposed to Timon’s formal garden. He thinks that the best garden is the landscape garden that tries to imitate nature. In conclusion, Pope plays a key role in the development of the landscape garden.