To illustrate the three principles, with reference to Landscape Gardening, we may remark, that, if unity only were consulted, a scene might be planted with but one kind of tree, the effect of which would be sameness; on the other hand, variety might be carried so far as to have every tree of a different kind, which would produce a confused effect. Harmony, however, introduces contrast and variety, but keeps them subordinate to unity, and to the leading expression; and is, thus, the highest principle of the three.
In this brief abstract of the nature of imitation in Landscape Gardening and the kinds of beauty which it is possible to produce by means of the art, we have endeavored to elucidate its leading principles, clearly, to the reader. These grand principles we shall here succinctly recapitulate, premising that a familiarity with them is of the very first importance in the successful practice of this elegant art, viz.:
THE IMITATION OF THE BEAUTY OF EXPRESSION, derived from a refined perception of the sentiment of nature: THE RECOGNITION OF ART, founded on the immutability of the true, as well as the beautiful: AND THE PRODUCTION OF UNITY, HARMONY, AND VARIETY, in order to render complete and continuous, our enjoyment of any artistical work.
[Andrew Jackson Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1859), p. 67.]
Downing thinks of Landscape Gardening as "an expressive, harmonious, and refined imitation" (p. 51), and early on characterizes it as "an union of natural expression and harmonious cultivation" (p. 18); the above basic principles arise from this conception. Obviously, 'expression' is a key concept here, as harmony is concerned with "the leading expression" and the imitation used in landscape gardening is "the beauty of expression". Downing doesn't give us any sort of extensive account, but the bits and pieces he mentions indicate that
(1) expression is associated with what we think of as the 'ideal' of a scene (p. 18);
(2) it is what appeals to our sense of beauty and perfection (p. 18);
(3) it has a relation to tasteful simplicity (p. 20);
(4) its use in art goes beyond the mere exhibition of design or art (p. 20);
(5) the natural expression can hold charm (p. 34);
(6) mastery of an art comes with being able use limited means to infuse even simple materials with "an expression of tasteful design" (p. 44);
(7) Landscape Gardening's existence as a fine art depended on men of genius making it an exercise of taste and imagination by enforcing a natural rather than purely formal manner on it, which allowed recognition of the natural beauty of expression (p. 47);
(8) the natural expressions with which Landscape Gardening are most concerned are the beautiful and the picturesque (pp. 48-50), which are "the two most forcible and complete expressions to be found in that kind of scenery which may be reproduced in Landscape Gardening" (p. 51);
(9) Landscape Gardening aims at separating the accidental and the essential, where the essential is "the expression more or less pervading every attractive portion of nature", and it gives charm by "eliciting, preserving, or heightening this expression", in such a way that the charm can exceed that which can be attained by art alone (p. 51);
(10) all beauty in natural objects comes from expression of the attributes of the Creator which he has stamped on his works (p. 52);
(11) besides the beautiful and picturesque, nature has expressions that are not easily imitated by Landscape Gardening, like grandeur/sublimity (p. 56), and expressions that are more delicate shades of expression associated with but subordinate to the beautiful, like "simplicity, dignity, grace, elegance, gaiety, chasteness, &c." (p. 57);
(12) the beautiful is the more perfect expression in nature, but we have some sympathy with the picturesque and enjoy its novelties (p. 61).
It thus seems that 'expression' involves those values belonging to natural scenes relative to our capacities for appreciating them, which values are attractive both in themselves and because they suggest a higher order; a fine art like landscape gardening takes the native values of an area and brings them out and adds to them in ways that make it possible for them to be more clearly experienced, and because of this can at times achieve works of art that, while involving skill, are not mere products of skill. (Sculpting, painting, and architecture do similar things, of course, and it is not surprising that these arts to which landscape gardening is most often compared..)
