Nguyen Vu: WARP: Response to “Green Dreams”

This text is laden with historical references and allusions; I found myself having to look up a lot of what Harbison was referring to as I tried to decipher the reading. All of the extra research was tedious but I was determined to get as much as I can out of the reading and I actually found the new bits of knowledge to be rather rewarding. I've learned that a garden can carry a powerful monologue, it can be an intellectual space that can possess a plethora of symbolism.
Two things really stuck to me from this passage: Harbison's allusion to Piranesi and Raphael's artwork in context with this "garden" topic. I've actually never heard of Piranesi before and discovering his work through this text was a real treat. There is a certain atmosphere that Piranesi manages to create in each of his elaborately rendered etchings and I can't stop studying the details in them ( I can see MC Escher possible drawing inspiration from Piranesi's Imaginary Prisons.) The comparison between the Stourhead temple and the one in Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin helped me understand how a building can bring "higher meanings" to their surroundings, in this case, a Renaissance painting and an English garden.