Plattegrond van een gebouw met een tuin c. 1848 - 1854

Christian Heinrich Gottlieb Steuerwald sketched this building plan and garden, but the real marvel lies in its echoes across time. The layout, with its structured building and adjacent garden, reflects an ancient yearning for order and harmony. Consider the early Renaissance villas in Italy, where similar layouts symbolized mankind's dominion over nature. In Steuerwald's sketch, the garden is not just a space but a mirror, reflecting humanity’s attempt to tame the wild, a concept that stretches back to the walled gardens of ancient Persia, havens of serenity amidst chaos. The circular form in the garden, suggestive of a fountain or a pool, invokes the classical motif of the "hortus conclusus," an enclosed garden symbolizing purity and contemplation. This motif resurfaces in medieval tapestries and Renaissance paintings, each time carrying a whisper of its origin, shaped by collective memory. It reveals how symbols persist, transformed yet familiar, engaging us in a silent dialogue across centuries.