Gardens offer people protection, relaxation, and inspiration. Whether artificial and enclosed or seemingly wild and natural, such cultivated paradises have also spurred artists over the centuries to produce masterpieces. The range of art produced in this way is as varied as the meaning of the garden itself: Gardens in medieval paintings are often surrounded by a wall, which keeps evil out of its magical realm. For Peter Paul Rubens, the garden was a private, domestic space. Caspar David Friedrich saw himself as a mediator between humankind and sublime nature. For Vincent van Gogh the garden was a screen for projecting the artist's melancholy. Impressionists like Claude Monet planted lavish gardens as real-life models for their splendidly colorful paintings. With essays by Sabine Schulze, Andreas Beyer, Klaus Börner, Werner Busch, Barbara Eschenburg, Cornelia Homburg, John House, Gudrun Körner, H. Walter Lack, and Beate Söntden, edited by Sabine Schule, this opulent volume surveys over two hundred images of both objective study and subjective experience from the fifteenth century to the present.