Man-made Landscapes of Bavarian Towns, Gardens, & Grounds by Michael Wening (1645-1718)

  Michael Wening (Bavarian artist, 1645-1718) Castle Lauterbach

1683 Italian Garden

1683 Prospettiva del Giardino Pontifico Givoanni Battista Falda (1643-1648) Li Giardini di Roma

1682 Gardener

Frontispiece [Planting the orange tree] Frans Ertinger after Charles Emmanuel Biset Etching from Frans van Sterbeeck (1631-1693) Citricultura Antwerp J. Jacops, 1682

17C English Gardens by L Knyff (1652-1722) & J Kip (1653-1722)

 St James Gardens

Man-made Landscapes of Bavarian Towns, Gardens, & Grounds by Michael Wening (1645-1718)

  Michael Wening (Bavarian artist, 1645-1718) Castle Hermastorff

1680 London's Covent Garden

St Paul's Covent Garden - The Prospects of London, Westminster and Southwark 1680

1677 Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital Public Garden in Moorfields England

Robert White (British, 1645-1703) View of the façade of the new Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam), in Moorfields seen from the garden side with a walk down the centre. 1677

17C Woman as Shepherdess (or perhaps Diana)

Jean Leblond 1605-1666  Leonide Bergere; print; Jeremias Falck (Print made by); Paris three-quarter length female shepherdess, stepping to right; a quiver slung across her back, holding a bow in her right hand. This woman has spectacular pearls in her hair, at her neck & wrist.  (ed. - This shepherdess looks like a depiction of Diana.)

Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch 1629-1684 paints City Gardens & Courtyards

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch artist, 1629-1684) The Courtyard of a House in Delft

1674 Gardens at Versailles

Gardens Versailles, with a carriage drawn by 6 horses, escorted by horsemen, beyond the fountain of Latona, with statues of frogs spouting water 1674

1673 Portrait on a Garden Terrace

Henri Gascar (French artist, 1634-35 - 1701) My Lady Anne Barrington and My Lady Mary Saniohn on a terrace opening onto a garden with statues. c 1673

Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch 1629-1684 paints City Gardens & Courtyards

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch artist, 1629-1684) Woman with Basket of Beans in the Kitchen Garden 1651

Man-made Landscapes of Bavarian Towns, Gardens, & Grounds by Michael Wening (1645-1718)

  Michael Wening (Bavarian artist, 1645-1718) Schloß Schönburg

1671 Portrait of a woman standing amid the roses with garden fountains beyond

Unidentified Lady standing amid the roses with fountains in garden beyond by Pieter Nason (1671)

1671 Allegories of Putties & Spring- In a Garden

Spring from The Four Seasons 1671 by Matthias Scheits (German artist c 1625 - 1700) Landscape with 5 putti in a landscape playing with birds.

Where did those putti come from?

Putti, in the ancient classical world, were winged male infants believed to actually influence human lives. 

Early image of putti. The Hestia Tapestry "Hestia full of Blessings" is a 6C work of art depicting 6 putti attending the goddess Hestia. Scan from 1945 book Documents of Dying Paganism. Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington D.C.

In Renaissance art, the activities & form of the little putto was derived from a variety of myths including the Greek Eros or Roman Amor/Cupid, the god of love & companion of Aphrodite or Venus. Putti seem to have mostly disappeared during the Middle Ages & appeared again during the 1400s.  Putti began to play in works showing figures from classical mythology, popular in the same period. Most Renaissance putti are essentially decorative little adorable boys in both religious & secular works. There are 2 popular forms of the putto as the main subject of a work of art in 16C Italian Renaissance art: the sleeping putto & the standing putto with an animal or other object demanding a bit of attention.

To learn more, you might go to Charles Dempsey's Inventing the Renaissance Putto. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, 2001.