Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the Garden Grotto

Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the Garden Grotto by Miller, Naomi. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780807609675.

This is the only single work devoted exclusively to the history of the garden grotto - the caves in landscape gardens that were artificially enhanced by waterfalls and ornamental delights to imitate, control and even surpass the effects of nature. Praised by writers from Pliny to Pope, the grotto has a rich and varied tradition: it originated as a motif in the classical world, where it was a ubiquitous feature imbued with mythological and oracular symbolism. Its popularity was renewed in the Renaissance gardens of the humanists, while its expressive effects achieved new heights with theatrical displays in the baroque nympheae of France and Italy, fanciful mazes in picturesque English landscapes, and melodramatic extravaganzas in the gardens of Wagnerian Germany. This miniature world was filled with fancy and mystery. Underground, the grotto was a source of natures secrets, as well as those of the muses and nymphs. But it was also a sanctuary for men that inspired inner reflections as well as poetical communions with nature. Above all, the grotto was a museum in which men expressed their artistic understanding of nature and the cosmos.