THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS: MEDIEVAL GARDENS AND THEIR MEANINGS / PARADISE REGAINED

The garden in medieval Europe was more than just a space where nature was cultivated and enjoyed. It was a cultural concept that existed as powerfully in the mind as it did in reality; a potent allegory for contemporary ideas about good and evil, filtered through a Christian consciousness. This course of 5 lectures explores the complex and sometimes contradictory range of meanings carried by the garden in medieval thinking. Sources are drawn from a wide range of medieval and early Renaissance imagery and include expressionistic Romanesque sculpture, exquisite illustrated manuscripts, glowing stained glass, sumptuous panel paintings and tapestries, backed up by references to contemporary music and poetry and a fledgling theatrical tradition.

PARADISE REGAINED

As an enclosed space, the garden in its entirety was an allegory for the perpetual virginity of the Madonna. The birds, animals and plants within it carried further symbolic meanings although these could be as earthy as they were spiritual. This lecture considers garden symbolism in the context of Paradise Lost and Regained

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