(#183) RON HERMAN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT:
Edition of 3084 of which 125 copies are signed 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist¼s proofs; 3 are signed as dedication copies, and three sets are signed as progressives.
October 8, 1999 17" x 24" 13 colors
Client: Ron Herman Landscape Architect ; Telephone: (510) 352-4920 email:rherman.com
Model: Monica Morrison White
Boa Constrictor: Don Juan - Snake Wrangler: Megan Leanne Cieri
Reference: Franz von Stuck (1863-1928)
Dedication copies: Megan Leanne Cieri; Lynn M. J. Gregory; Ron Herman; Leslie Anne Tucker; Monica Morrison White 1-125: Saint Hieronymus Press A-Z: Artist¼s own use Progressives: One set to Ron Herman; one set to Lynn M. J. Gregory; one set to Monica Morrison White; one set to Saint Hieronymus Press
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by King Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife Amyitis, whose heart fell weary of the everlasting flatness of her adopted country. Her native Median Hills rolled and rose, and the garden built for her delight was 400 feet on a side, rising in a series of terraces to a considerable height. It was able to accommodate trees of great size, and was irrigated with water raised from the Euphrates by an Archimedes screw.
The Persians called such an enclosed and extensive park a "paradise," and the Greeks borrowed the word, which in turn was employed by the Septuagint to describe the Garden of Eden, which may itself have been situated at or near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Queen Amyitis¼ longing for the hills of her childhood days was no more than mankind¼s irrepressible yearning for our lost Eden, attempted again and again by homely gardeners and grand landscape architects alike. You can't go home again.*
* "You Can't Go Home Again," Thomas Clayton Wolfe (1900-1938) posthumously published novel assembled by his editor Edward C. Aswell from an eight-foot pile of manuscript.