A Study on the Aesthetics of British Ruins Landscape in the Eighteenth Century

In the eighteenth century Britain, the understanding of “temporality” in ruins has ever encouraged travelers and architects to explore a new picturesque landscape, which is involved not only in the memory of Roman landscape that inspires the “agreeable melancholy” but also in the reflection of Gothic ruins and the medieval history it indicates. Because of the sense of time built by the memory and reflection,the ruined landscape became the main factor in English landscape garden and then spread widely in the whole Europe. Meantime, the impression on Chinese garden and landscape also by travelers and architects made impact on the development of ruined landscape. The three cultures are intertwined with each other and yet there are indeed the internal releationship within their thoughts.