Ercole Ghirlanda Silva: Garden Politics and the Dawning of the Risorgimento

The composite figure of Ercole Ghirlanda Silva—botanist, author and traveller—is sketched in his role as the advocate and promoter of landscape gardening in northern Italy. The essay, which draws on a wealth of scholarly information and commentary, does not limit itself to unravel the multiple symbolic expressions of power and wealth underpinning the art of English landscape gardening and the way they were adapted to different Italian contexts. It also foregrounds the way Silva was able to appropriate the strong political élan accompanying the strategic use of architectural and statuary symbols apt to convey deeply innovative cultural innuendos that were bound to have a revolutionary fallout in terms of cultural politics. The article nvestigates the art and politics of gardening against the framework of the Napoleonic rule over Northern Italy, reaching out to the impact of the debate on landscape gardening “as part of a political statement that will be heard with greater resonance and specific relevance during the Italian Risorgimento”.