Özet:

The utopian discourses in Western civilizations, as in Eastern civilizations, cover the depictions of paradise and an ideal society based on the promise of happiness. According to many belief and thought systems, paradise and utopian concepts are the promise of happiness that believed to live after the death of human including the longing of a lost origin. From antiquity to present these concepts are often mentioned in myths and sacred texts of the polytheistic and monotheistic religions in the form of symbolic expressions. In the historical process, starting from realm of the earthly happiness Dilmun that called by the Sumerians, as a means of utopian discourse; garden, island, and like a wild nature, description and narrations have been indicated as in Panchaea Island that described in the Euhemerus’s Sacred History, as with the legend of Atlantis that stated in the Plato’s Timaeus and Critias dialogues from Ancient Greek philosophers, and in Thomas More’s Utopia which is the output source of utopian thinking. Likewise, starting from the Old Testament; utopian spatial depictions have been highlighted in the Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained that are made references to longing to have lost paradise of mankind that are mentioned the concepts of heaven and hell in the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions. Earthly Paradise phenomenon of Western culture that enhanced by Christianity doctrine, and formatted with Ancient Greco-Roman heritage, has had an important place in the literature; been used frequently in the symbolic and spatial context in the plastic and visual arts as well. In Western art, as a based on the landscape painting tradition; the first samples of garden, island, and wild nature images are seen on the frescoes and mosaics, together with a found mural as a title known Spring Landscape, on the island of Thera of the Minoan civilization from the Bronze Age civilizations, and in a large section of ruins of the city in Pompeii, and in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta near the city of Rome. Not only iconological and mythological context, but also in the form of the reflections of a utopian idea; this tradition has continued with different materials and approaches since the Renaissance. The utopian discourses have been evaluated in the context of political and social meanings since 19th century. Especially in the 20th century, utopian discourse is emphasized among avant-garde artists as the ultimate purpose of artistic practices; in addition, this ideal approaches have been produced social and political rhetoric around. The aim of this study is how the utopian concept has been described and interpreted by means of garden, island, and wild nature views in terms of the historical process in Western art. Keywords: Garden, island, utopia, Western art, wild nature images.

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