DC | The Art History of the Botanical Garden 🕊️

Stepping into the National Arboretum, the scenery before my eyes evokes only two words: wilderness. It’s like Greece, like Pride and Prejudice. Where does this free yet slightly sacred ambiance come from? 🕊️ It’s the Roman columns!! Actually, the “Roman” columns were invented by the ancient Greeks, which include the simple and powerful Doric order (like the Parthenon of the Acropolis), the gentle Ionic (like the Temple of Athena Nike), and the intricate Corinthian (like the Temple of Zeus). The ancient Romans were more straightforward based on the Doric and more luxurious based on the Corinthian – resulting in the Tuscan, Ionic Moderne, and Composite orders. 🏛️ The earliest record of Roman columns is by the art history god, the Roman writer, architect, and engineer Vitruvius in his “Ten Books on Architecture”. During the Renaissance, artists including Raphael popularized ancient Roman architecture, endowing the Roman columns with human qualities. 🌳 So the ambiance brought by the Roman columns, in plain terms, might be an association with ancient Greece and Rome, and certainly an association with ruins, because the ultimate beauty lies in existence, loss, regret, and longing. #ArtCanBeDiscussedInEverything #Washington #NationalArboretum #MyArtfulLife #Rome #Greece