Tuin met een parterre en een zuilengang 1615

This print by Michael Birbaum shows a formal garden with a parterre and a colonnade. A garden like this embodies a particular set of social relations, of the aristocracy, of land ownership, and of leisure. We can consider this image in relation to the history of gardens as spaces of social gathering, performance, and display. In seventeenth-century Europe, gardens were increasingly designed as extensions of architectural spaces and as stages for social interaction. Birbaum's image presents a very ordered garden reflecting values held by society. To understand the print more fully, it's essential to explore the social and cultural history of garden design, the patronage system that supported artists like Birbaum, and the role of printed images in disseminating ideas about taste and status. This kind of research helps us to recognize how art is always entangled with the social conditions of its making.