Gardens as Mirrors of Power

The essay discusses diachronically the close connection that exists between the art of arranging a garden with plants, flowers, paths, pools, fountains, and grottoes and a specific conception and interpretation of power and of its exercise. Indeed, it is possible to look at gardens as metaphors for power, or, more precisely, as a mirror of power; the garden is a place where politics and art combine, where a ruler stages its own power. When analysing diachronically the architecture of the state, and the way the relationship between rulers and ruled is structured, it is possible to identify a corresponding gardens’ design. The way gardens are arranged evolves throughout the centuries, following the evolution of both the exercise of power and state architecture.