Stages of nature. Western travels through Chinese gardens in the seventeenth and eighteenth century

This essay explores the evolution of Western perception of the Chinese approach to nature expressed in garden design as emerged from the accounts of Western travellers during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, when Europeans’ fascination with the Chinese gardens and their admiration for China reached its peak. The chronological framework bears witness to the evolution of Western travellers’ perceptions of Chinese gardens, that shifted from the general fascination for the gardens’ irregularity and a diffused naturalness of the seventeenth century, to an increasingly methodical approach of the eighteenth century, when Western eyewitnesses tried to codify the gardens’ distinctive design strategy.