Garden Statues: From Gnomes to High Art

You can tell a lot about a person by their reaction to a statue. Do you weep with regret that you will never create something as beautiful as an Ancient Greek bust or do you chuckle at the addition of a cheeky gnome to your collection of pint-sized pottery?

Cut off at the knees and shoulders, the Torso Belvedere is an incomplete statue by an unknown artist from Ancient Greece that can be viewed in the Vatican Museum in Rome. When Michelangelo first saw it, he wept at its beauty and thenceforth referred to it as his “teacher.” The missing fragments force the viewer to fill in the details. This can be done in two ways. It is possible to observe the Torso as either sitting passively in contemplation or engaged in heroic action - an effect that would be impossible to achieve with a complete statue.

Michelangelo’s David is in some sense his response to the structural ambiguity of the Torso. Previous statues of David had tended to show him after the battle with Goliath standing in victory. Michelangelo’s David is usually interpreted as presenting him prior to the battle, tense and slightly nervous but convinced that God is on his side. The statue is an incredible 17 feet tall.

At the other end of the statue scale stands the gnome. These Gartenzwerge first appeared in Germany in the 19th Century and migrated to England shortly afterwards, where they have remained a popularly divisive addition to gardens ever since. 

If you want to make a statue a feature of your garden, we can incorporate it into one of our bespoke landscape designs. If you have an army of gnomes that need cementing in place, we are more than happy to help you design and build your very own gnomescape, replete with all the toadstools, fishponds and mini windmills you desire. And if you really cannot stand your neighbour’s taste in art, we have a very good line in fencing as well!

For any advice on landscaping projects for your garden, give us a call on 01603 360548 or send an email to enquiries@knightslandscaping.co.uk.