Tuscany · Artists · Gardens - Tapa dura

Artists have always been drawn to Tuscany, seduced by its outstanding beauty, mild climate and rich cultural history. This lavishly illustrated book presents thirty Tuscan gardens designed and created by some of the most renowned contemporary artists in the world today, all of whom have settled in Tuscany, and all of whom have applied their artistic sensitivities to their surroundings in unusual and distinctive ways. Their gardens take many different forms, from majestic, formally designed acres punctuated with sculpture to tiny, intimate spaces that run riot with colour of every imaginable hue. Daniel Spoerri has used the landscape as a dramatic backdrop to his constantly evolving 'Hic Terminus Haeret', a sixteen hectare estate that features great new works of art scattered along a botanic trail designed by landscape architect Irma Beniamino. Niki de Saint Phalle's extraordinary 'Tarot Garden' houses twenty-two polychromatic sculptures representing the major arcana of the Tarot, while in Fernando Botero's 'Garden for the Goddess of Fertility', monumental bronze figures loom out of the trees. Maria Sgaravatti's essays offer telling insights into the artists' motivations, and explore the ways in which their work is intrinsically connected to the magical beauty of the Tuscan landscape, while Mario Ciampi's photographs perfectly evoke the atmosphere of each garden. The descriptions of the gardens present many exciting gardening solutions and will become a useful and original source of inspiration for anyone working in the field.

Maria Sgaravatti has been a landscape architect since graduating in architecture, and is the author of two books on the subject. Mario Ciampi is renowned in his native Italy for his interiors photography. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Casa Vogue.