Gardens

Places of harmony and beauty, the historic gardens represent one of the deepest links between Nature, Architecture e Culture of the Cremonese territory. The exhibition at Diotti Museum pays tribute to these spaces with a journey through photographs, historical documents and artistic testimonies.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the exceptional photographic corpus of Luigi Briselli, made over twenty years ago and now enriched with new shots documenting the evolution and restoration of the gardens over time. The images tell a fascinating itinerary through residences and landscapes of Casalmaggiore, Sabbioneta, San Giovanni in Croce, Colorno, Cicognolo, and many other places, testifying to the landscape refinement of the territory.

To complete the course, volumes, drawings and prints from the 16th to the 19th century offer a glimpse into the aesthetic evolution of the garden: from strict formal models to romantic and landscape models. The valuable treatise Of the Art of English Gardens by Hercules Silva, a veritable “bible” of landscape gardening, flanked by a historical herbarium.

The exhibition is also a homage to Prof. Arch. Luciano Roncai, a pioneer in the study of Cremonese gardens. His fundamental works include Cremonese Gardens (2004) e A Garden in Europe (2005), with contributions by Marida Brignani and Luigi Briselli.