Planting ‘Italian Gusto’ in ‘a Gothick country’: The influence of Filippo Juvarra on William Kent

After a lacklustre attempt to become a painter,William Kent (1685–1748) developed a career as a garden designer, working mainly for Lord Burlington and other patrons in his circle. His gardens represent some of the earliest gardens of a style that became known as the ‘English Landscape Garden’, exemplified by Stourhead in Wiltshire, Rousham in Oxfordshire and Stowe in Buckinghamshire; so named in part because, in the past, scholars have pointed to landscape painting as the primary influence on the creation of this new style. In this paper, therefore, I shall present a way of approaching Kent’s garden designs that focuses on his experiences in Rome and his subsequent position within the musical and theatrical milieu of Lord Burlington. I shall explore the influence of Italian set design upon the garden style that Kent introduced to England in the 1720s, and go from there to the wider question of the ‘theatricality’ of the English Baroque garden.