Living Sculpture - Topiary

Topiary

One of the older and more familiar kinds of living sculpture, topiary is the art of growing dense, leafy plants and pruning them into a form, or training them over a frame, to create a three-dimensional object. It relies on pruning and training to give shape to an existing plant. It also can involve training a plant to fill in a form.

Topiary is one type of living sculpture that has gone in and out of favor through the ages. A few historical highlights of its importance and use:

• Earliest references of topiary date back to 23-79 A.D.
• It was immensely popular in Ancient Rome using cypress trees, but after the fall of Rome, topiary fell out of favor for several hundred years.
• It returned in medieval times as a way of training fruit plants, and then was again rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance.
• The Dutch in the 15th century became intrigued with creating topiary in animal shapes, as did 17th century England; the French preferred creating topiary in geometric designs with strict symmetry.
• 18th century, topiary fell out of favor again, and a natural look returned.
• Victorians brought back topiary, adding in new plants and details.
• Topiary spread to North America at Williamsburg, Virginia, around 1690.
• As houseplants became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, topiary moved indoors.