Gardens were very important in the Middle Ages, not only for growing vegetables and medicinal herbs, but also as a pleasure garden to imagine yourself in paradise. This universal garden is now the theme of the new exhibition in the National Museum of Antiquities.
A pontifically displayed stone watering can, that's where the exhibition starts. Watering cans have not changed much in their design and so it is obvious what you are looking at. That is exactly what Annemarieke Willemsen, curator of the collection of the Netherlands Middle Ages wants to show. Many well-known tools, such as watering cans, shovels, pruning shears or the leather gloves for pruning roses have surprisingly remained the same over the centuries. They just didn't have rakes yet, the gardener used a two- or trident for that.
Willemsen:“The spades are made of wood, but the difference with now is that the blade was also made of wood, with only an iron edge around it.” Those who worked outside for a longer period of time wore a sun hat and took a water flask with them. Gardeners can therefore be clearly recognized in medieval images by these attributes and their tools.
Science in the garden
In the Middle Ages, the herb garden was most common. They served as food or were used in medicines. The garden was fenced and divided into four, with a well or fountain in the center to water everything. The green designed exhibition therefore starts with the practical variants, such as the vegetable garden, herb garden and orchard. Then you walk along the symbolic ornamental gardens, pleasure gardens and courtyards for the rich.
After the garden of paradise and the enclosed court for Saint Mary or the oriental monarch, you end up at the scientific hortus from the sixteenth century. This is after the Middle Ages and Willemsen explains why the exhibition continues in time:“In the Middle Ages, the garden was an ideal image, a reflection of the divine paradise. In the sixteenth century, however, the study of plants became a science, through plant books and in botanical gardens. We wanted to show this contrast.”
Carolus Clusius has been setting up such a scientific hortus at Leiden University since 1594. A reconstruction of this can still be visited in the Hortus Botanicus. During the exhibition it is possible to follow a special tour, with all kinds of information about medieval plants and what they were used for.
Plant books or herbaria were originally found in monasteries and intended to make you wonder about the richness of creation. The images are often schematic representations. The scientific herbaria from the sixteenth century, however, contains real, dried plants. In addition to medieval herbaria, the exhibition also includes the famous 'En tibi' herbarium. This is one of the first specimens with glued in plants, 477 pieces, including the oldest dried tomato in Europe. The book is open on the Tagetes, just like the tomato, a plant from the New World.
Testing archaeological finds
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The exhibition shows gardens from an archaeological, cultural-historical and art-historical approach. “Unfortunately, the combination of archaeological objects, artefacts and literature is by no means common yet, but it is characteristic of this exhibition and my research. The innovative and unknown sources are in particular the archaeological finds:they are never used for research into the history of gardens," says Willemsen.
Willemsen, for example, investigated what the small holes in the edges of flower pots were for. It was always thought to attach ropes and hang the pots from, but medieval images show that sticks were put through the holes where plants stood against. “We copied this and those sticks turned out to work perfectly for tying plants to.”
Willemsen has also tested the use of the thumb casters on display. “This is a high-level precision gardening attachment made especially for herbs. When you submerge this watering can and keep your thumb on the hole, you then dose exactly the amount of water.” These examined objects were found at the Delft Carthusian monastery that was destroyed during the Revolt in 1573 and was excavated in 1959.
Love among the plants
The exhibition also makes a comparison between the Western Christian and Eastern Islamic garden, for which images, books and artifacts from the Middle East abound. This approach is more than logical as the square walled monastery garden is based on the Persian garden. Our word for paradise even comes from Persian, paridaeza, which means walled garden and the medieval people believed that paradise from the bible was still somewhere in the east.
In both cultures the cultivated garden played an important role, and in both the Bible and the Quran paradise is described as a garden, where humans and animals live in harmony, where it is always good to stay with enough shade, food and wine and where the fountain of eternal youth is located. Man tried to recreate this paradise. In the Middle Ages, nature was seen as indomitable and dangerous and the garden had to be separated from this wasteland.
The exhibits from East and West show the luxurious gardens at palaces and castles. Here the elite partied, walked or rested amid the floral splendor, by a fountain or a pavilion. These kinds of ornamental gardens were a status symbol, as were the exotic animals that were often kept there. Special attention is also paid to pleasure gardens, popular in the Middle Ages, full of symbolic flowers such as the rose, where lovers could meet.
Music or chess was also played in these pleasure gardens. Willemsen:“The game of chess was a legitimate reason to invite someone, also as a woman, and to isolate yourself with it for a long time. Chess pieces are therefore regularly found during excavations, often at castle locations.” Chess in a pleasure garden is a regular occurrence in literature, such as in the story of Tristan and Isolde. These lovers can be seen here in books but also on the sheet of wooden trippen (overshoes). “Women were often given such chic trips as a wedding or engagement gift. We want to show that chess in the garden occurred in both elite culture and popular culture,” says Willemsen.
Gardener Jesus
In the bible the garden not only comes back as paradise, the tomb of Jesus was also in a closed garden. Mary Magdalene came to tend his corpse, but the tomb was empty. When she turned around crying, she saw Jesus standing there. She just didn't recognize him and thought he was the gardener. Willemsen:“Medieval images of this story often show Jesus with a shovel in his hand and a wide sun hat. They made faith very identifiable and close by.”
A closed garden was a beautiful symbol for chosen ones such as Mary, or oriental princes. They were depicted in ideal versions full of symbolic flowers that bloomed at the same time. We also see this reflected indoors. When the weather was too bad, or too hot in the Middle East, the wealthy could retire to special rooms, covered with carpets full of flowers. The tableware on the table, such as plates, bowls and pitchers from East and West, were often decorated with plant motifs to remind you of God's creation.
Willemsen:“In the East, the color green played the leading role, while in Europe we were more into flowers.” All these colors can be found in the design of the exhibition, which gives the whole a pleasant and cheerful appearance.
Preserved bird cage
It is interesting to see that there were so many different types of gardens and the ways in which the medieval people arranged, worked and used them. There are more texts and in particular objects about western gardens, but the eastern variant is certainly present in this exhibition. They surprise the most, for example by depicting a holy Jesus with a flaming head in a garden full of flowers. Or the 'primordial Dutch tulip', which turned out to be the flower of Allah in his native Turkey.
But my favorite display cases are those with medieval utensils. How nice because it is recognizable to see that a shovel and a watering can have looked the same for centuries, just like the bird cage that is much too small for songbirds. Or that Jesus was often depicted as a gardener, including a straw hat, to make the Bible stories tangible for the illiterate believers. A fine example of medieval effectiveness.
The exhibition Medieval Gardens, Earthly Paradises in East and West can be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden until 2 September 2019. Practical information can be found on the website of the RMO
The exhibition is accompanied by a booklet by curator Annemarieke Willemse, Medieval Gardens – Earthly Paradises in East and West, 1200-1600. It contains more information about the different types of gardens that existed in the Middle Ages in both Christian Europe and the Islamic East.
You can also take a special medieval plant tour in the nearby Clusius Garden of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus. The information will soon appear on the Hortus site.