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Volume 97 No. 4
October 1993
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The Aegean Garden
Maria C. Shaw
In this paper I attempt to identify possible gardens, as opposed to natural landscapes, in Aegean artistic depictions. Scenes of nature occur in various media, but most extensively in frescoes. The Aegean garden remains elusive in art because of the artists' tendency to render plants and floral settings in idealized and fantastic ways. An exception is a possible formal garden depicted in the well-known floral fresco from the Minoan villa at Amnisos. Generally, however, the Aegean garden must have consisted of a natural landscape that was modified only in limited and subtle ways, through cultivation and other means. Important in the search for clues for such modifications are representations of cultivable types of flora, and activities in which people and animals interact with floral settings. It is suggested here that a Minoan garden may have existed in the east wing of the palace at Phaistos. This is a rocky outcrop with fissures and holes that may have been planted with flowers. As can be seen from a newly made topographical plan, the rock was trimmed with tools and incorporated in the architectural plan of that area of the palace.
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