ABSTRACT
In the Renaissance, the garden is a defined and enclosed area, dominated by human control but intended to resemble the mythical gardens that require no human intervention or labor. The garden owner performs the divine act of animating the inanimate but artificially, as the statuary mimic's life. By means of the direct manipulation of the garden performance, the owner controls the actions. Paulina similarly controls Leontes and Perdita though her miraculous performance that vivifies an inert statue with human rather than automatized life. Life imitates art in the scene rather than art imitating life. Through the orchestration of this extravagant garden performance in which the corporeal body appears mechanical, Hermione regains Paulina's rightful place as wife and as co-ruler in the political state. Within the structure of Renaissance Italian garden, the giardino segreto, the descendant of the medieval hortus conclusus, was an enclosed area set aside for private use. Perdita's iconographic resemblance to Elizabeth is represented in her flower garden.
