The elegant garden : architecture and landscape of the world's finest gardens / Johann Kraftner

Includes index.

The garden, a place of eternal life -- Arcadia's first rebirth, the Italian garden -- Ordered nature, the French garden -- The world as marvel and harmony, the Chinese garden -- From abstraction to meditation, the Japanese garden -- The designed landscape, the English garden -- Caprices of imagination, follies and pavilions -- Palaces without walls, orangeries and greenhouses -- The art of functional beauty, trellises, gazebos, and pergolas -- The art of beautiful cutting, topiary -- Rooms with sky, the courtyard garden --Everyday oases, the small garden -- Dialogues between tradition and innovation, the new garden -- Index.

The first major illustrated monograph in many years on the history of gardens, landscape design, and architecture, focusing on both the Western and Eastern traditions and their influences. Ambitious in scope and lavishly illustrated, this book surveys every period in garden design and landscape architecture, from classical antiquity and the medieval cloisters to the latest trends in modern design. Captured here are two millennia of garden history--the most comprehensive garden photo documentary ever undertaken by a single author.