• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.58-68
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• 2014

Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld is often regarded as 'a father of landscape garden art.' He was an aesthetics professor and garden theoretician in the $18^{th}$ century. He put forth the most comprehensive garden theory book in five volumes between 1779 and 1785. His book, Theorie der Gartenkunst, was translated and widely circulated in his contemporary. The book, which dealt with diverse aspects of garden art such as history, design, material, and type, urged to promote the prevalence of landscape garden in European continents as well as in Germany. However, there have scarcely been discourses in the Hirschfeld's garden theory. This essay aims to review Hirschfeld's garden thoughts in his book critically and to reinterpret some issues in the contemporary landscape theory and practice. Hirschfeldian theory was the product of $18^{th}$ century German Enlightenment and romanticism. At that time, Nature was regarded as divine realm. There was a German affinity with natural world. The spread of reading culture and the fashion of travel literature were another background of the success of his garden literature. Several issues in Hirschfeld garden theory will discussed here. First, privileging garden art was the most significant contribution in his theory. He emphasized that garden art was the most advanced art form among all art genres. Second, garden art was grounded on the mimesis of nature. The ambiguous relationship between nature and art still existed in garden making. However, garden art can be flourished when utilizing the potency of nature in itself. Third, there was the association between the image and the idea in experiencing the garden. Some garden scenes stimulated the related emotional responses such as cheerful and merry, softly melancholic, romantic, solemn etc. Fourth, the movement was the essential aspect of garden art. Motion and emotion are come together in garden experience. To represent the landscape garden style in suitable way, the sketch or image seems to be preferable than the plans and views. Finally, garden art was composing of not only the physical space but also the spirit of place. He maintained the garden art as hortus moralis should be a social metaphor. Hirschfeldian garden theory has often been criticized as the lack of practical power and the old fashioned idea. However, his theory influenced on formulating the idea of public park in $19^{th}$ century. Moreover, there are still some visionary aspects of his theory such as the reevaluation of garden art, the emphasis of locality and the introduction of Mittelweg idea. Recently, gardening culture are prevalent in various realms of art and life. Hirschfeld's garden theory as humanistic landscape theory can provide us some insights in the contemporary practices.