Contextualizing Roman art and nature

The Romans invented two forms of visual display that intimately connected art and nature: landscape design and landscape painting. In this chapter, the archaeological evidence for Roman gardens and the display of works of art in that context are explored. A comparison of real gardens with virtual gardens is attempted, exploring how both might have been seen and experienced by Roman viewers. The chapter also talks about the public gardens and parks of Rome as art galleries and museums. In the late Republican and early imperial periods, the art of painting walls and panels with garden scenes and landscapes flourished. Three genres of such paintings are discussed: gardens as large-scale murals in interior rooms and along the corridors of peristyle courtyards; the portrayal of architectural settings with enclosed gardens and groves covering the entire walls of interior rooms; and, finally, sacro-idyllic and villa landscapes painted on panels.