Gardens of the French Monarchy
Saturday, March 20, 2010 - Sunday, August 1, 2010
The history of French gardens from the Renaissance to the French Revolution can be roughly divided into three periods. First, from about 1500 when France began to centralize the government, royal and aristocratic patrons employed Italian artists and craftsmen to create gardens that merged Italian design with the French medieval garden style. Second, in the 1600s when the absolute authority of the Bourbon dynasty was established, the French formal garden reached its pinnacle with the advent of the great landscape architect André Le Nôtre. Third, during the eighteenth century when social disaffection led to the overthrow of the monarchy, the English landscape garden was introduced to France, as more “natural” and picturesque gardens conforming to the Romantic sensibility came to be appreciated.
This exhibit highlights the seventeenth‐century gardens created for Louis XIV (reigned 1661‐1715) and his court. These gardens featured axial vistas, ornamental parterres (patterned garden beds), and monumental fountains. They represent an orderly universe viewed from a single vantage point, that of the absolute monarch, and embody the idea of centralized power and human dominion over nature. In the process of distinguishing themselves from their Italian predecessors, French designers were confronted with a significant challenge: the relatively flat land of France. Italian gardens were frequently designed to conform to the topography of the hilly terrain, and that site organization could not be uniformly applied to French sites. The canal, a rectangular sheet of water reflecting the sky and the clouds; the ornamental parterre with decorative scrolls; the symmetrical groves and the rows of
trees receding into the distance that took into account the problems of perspective and optics—these forms were the ingenious solution on the part of the designers to bring out the beauty of the French landscape.
Because gardens are among the most ephemeral and fragile forms of art, prints are an important source of information regarding their design, function and context. While not even the grandest of gardens could survive the vicissitudes of time, these prints have recorded their appearance and can still evoke their character.
This exhibit highlights the seventeenth‐century gardens created for Louis XIV (reigned 1661‐1715) and his court. These gardens featured axial vistas, ornamental parterres (patterned garden beds), and monumental fountains. They represent an orderly universe viewed from a single vantage point, that of the absolute monarch, and embody the idea of centralized power and human dominion over nature. In the process of distinguishing themselves from their Italian predecessors, French designers were confronted with a significant challenge: the relatively flat land of France. Italian gardens were frequently designed to conform to the topography of the hilly terrain, and that site organization could not be uniformly applied to French sites. The canal, a rectangular sheet of water reflecting the sky and the clouds; the ornamental parterre with decorative scrolls; the symmetrical groves and the rows of
trees receding into the distance that took into account the problems of perspective and optics—these forms were the ingenious solution on the part of the designers to bring out the beauty of the French landscape.
Because gardens are among the most ephemeral and fragile forms of art, prints are an important source of information regarding their design, function and context. While not even the grandest of gardens could survive the vicissitudes of time, these prints have recorded their appearance and can still evoke their character.