ABSTRACT
The new reverence given to subjectivity and nature in the eighteenth century, and the association of one with the other, encouraged a new type of design and a new way of designing, which valued the ideas and emotions evoked through experience. The early eighteenth-century picturesque is the subject of this chapter and William Kent is its central figure. The chapter is organised into three interconnecting sections, each with a specific theme, which together consider the ideas and places that informed the picturesque. The first, ‘Magnificence Beyond the Formal Mockery of Princely Gardens’, addresses the philosophical, cultural and political contexts to the ‘natural’ garden in eighteenth-century England, which gave special attention to weather as a means to discover the qualities of a person and a place. The second, ‘Signor Kentino’, discusses the Roman and Italian influences that Kent translated for an English climate. The third, ‘More than Picturesque’, analyses the origins of the term and questions its appropriateness to the early eighteenth-century English garden. Concluding my investigation of the early picturesque, Chapter 2 provides a detailed study of Kent's garden at Rousham, Oxfordshire.
