TheFrench formal garden, also called thejardin à la française (French for 'garden in the French manner'), is a style of "landscape"garden based onsymmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Itsepitome is generally considered to be theGardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by thelandscape architectAndré Le Nôtre forLouis XIV and widely copied by otherEuropean courts.[1]
Classicism was also expressed inhorticulture.Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie introduced an art of fruit pruning and bedding techniques that were to have a lasting impact on production gardens. But the term ‘classical garden’ was only used for pleasure gardens.
Thejardin à la française evolved from theFrench Renaissance garden, a style which was inspired by theItalian Renaissance garden at the beginning of the 16th century. The Italian Renaissance garden, typified by theBoboli Gardens in Florence and theVilla Medici in Fiesole, was characterized by planting beds, orparterres, created in geometric shapes, and laid out symmetrical patterns; the use offountains andcascades to animate the garden; stairways and ramps to unite different levels of the garden;grottos,labyrinths, and statuary on mythological themes. The gardens were designed to represent harmony and order, the ideals of the Renaissance, and to recall the virtues ofancient Rome. Additionally, the symmetry of French gardens was a continuation of the Renaissance themes of harmony. French gardens were symmetrical and well manicured to represent order, and this idea of orderliness extended to French society at the time.
Following his campaign in Italy in 1495, where he saw the gardens and castles of Naples, KingCharles VIII brought Italian craftsmen andgarden designers, such asPacello da Mercogliano, from Naples and ordered the construction of Italian-style gardens at his residence at theChâteau d'Amboise and at Château Gaillard, another private résidence in Amboise. His successorHenry II, who had also travelled to Italy and had metLeonardo da Vinci, created an Italian-style garden nearby at theChâteau de Blois.[2] Beginning in 1528, KingFrancis I created new gardens at theChâteau de Fontainebleau, which featured fountains, parterres, a forest of pine trees brought fromProvence, and the first artificial grotto in France.[3] TheChâteau de Chenonceau had two gardens in the new style, one created forDiane de Poitiers in 1551, and a second forCatherine de' Medici in 1560.[4]
In 1536 the architectPhilibert de l'Orme, upon his return from Rome, created the gardens of theChâteau d'Anet following the Italian rules of proportion. The carefully prepared harmony of Anet, with its parterres and surfaces of water integrated with sections of greenery, became one of the earliest and most influential examples of the classic French garden.[5] Today, water remains a key garden design in the form of round pools and long ponds.
While the gardens of the French Renaissance were much different in their spirit and appearance than those of the Middle Ages, they were still not integrated with the architecture of the châteaux, and were usually enclosed by walls. In French garden design, the chateau or home was supposed to be the visual focal point. The different parts of the gardens were not harmoniously joined, and they were often placed on difficult sites chosen for terrain easy to defend, rather than for beauty. All this was to change in the middle of the 17th century with the development of the first real gardenà la française.
The first important gardenà la française was the Chateau ofVaux-le-Vicomte, created forNicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances toLouis XIV, beginning in 1656. Fouquet commissionedLouis Le Vau to design the chateau,Charles Le Brun to design statues for the garden, andAndré Le Nôtre to create the gardens. It was for the first time that the garden and the chateau were perfectly integrated. A grand perspective of 1500 meters extended from the foot of the chateau to the statue of theFarnese Hercules, and the space was filled with parterres of evergreen shrubs in ornamental patterns, bordered by coloured sand, and the alleys were decorated at regular intervals by statues, basins, fountains, and carefully sculpted topiaries. "The symmetry attained at Vaux achieved a degree of perfection and unity rarely equalled in the art of classic gardens. The chateau is at the center of this strict spatial organization, which symbolizes power and success."[6]
TheGardens of Versailles, created by André Le Nôtre between 1662 and 1700, were the greatest achievement of the gardenà la française. They were the largest gardens in Europe, with an area of 15,000 hectares, and were laid out on an east–west axis followed the course of the sun: the sun rose over the Court of Honor, lit the Marble Court, crossed the Chateau and lit the bedroom of the King, and set at the end of the Grand Canal, reflected in the mirrors of theHall of Mirrors.[7] In contrast with the grand perspectives, reaching to the horizon, the garden was full of surprises – fountains, small gardens filled with statuary, which provided a more human scale and intimate spaces.
The central symbol of the garden was the sun; the emblem ofLouis XIV, illustrated by the statue ofApollo in the central fountain of the garden. "The views and perspectives, to and from the palace, continued to infinity. The king ruled over nature, recreating in the garden not only his domination of his territories, but over the court and his subjects."[8]
André Le Nôtre died in 1700, but his pupils and his ideas continued to dominate the design of gardens in France through the reign ofLouis XV. His nephew,Claude Desgots, created the garden atChâteau de Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis) forPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans (1717) and at Champs (Seine-et-Marne), and another relative,Jean-Charles Garnier d'Isle [fr], created gardens forMadame de Pompadour atCrécy[verification needed] (Eure-et-Loir) in 1746 and Bellevue (Hauts-de-Seine) in 1748–50.[9] The major inspiration for gardens continued to be architecture, rather than nature – the architectAnge-Jacques Gabriel designed elements of the gardens at Versailles, Choisy (Val-de-Marne), andCompiègne.
Nonetheless, a few variations in the strict geometry of the gardenà la française began to appear. Elaborate parterres of broderies, with their curves and counter-curves, were replaced by parterres of grass bordered with flowerbeds, which were easier to maintain. Circles became ovals, called rotules, with alleys radiating outward in the shape of an 'x', and irregular octagon shapes appeared. Gardens began to follow the natural landscape, rather than moving earth to shape the ground into artificial terraces. Limited colors were available at the time as well. Traditionally, French gardens included blue, pink, white, and mauve.
The middle of the 18th century saw spread in popularity of the newEnglish landscape garden, created by British aristocrats and landowners, and the Chinese style, brought to France byJesuit priests from the Court of the Emperor of China. These styles rejected symmetry in favor of nature and rustic scenes and brought an end to the reign of the symmetrical gardenà la française. In many French parks and estates, the garden closest to the house was kept in the traditionalà la française style, but the rest of the park was transformed into the new style, called variouslyjardin à l'anglaise (the English garden), "anglo-chinois",exotiques, or "pittoresques". This marked the end of the age of the gardenà la française and the arrival in France of thejardin paysager, orlandscape garden, which was inspired not by architecture but by painting, literature and philosophy.[10]
Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie (c. 1560–1633) the superintendent of royal gardens underLouis XIII, became the first theorist of the new French style. His book,Traité du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, pelouzes, bosquets et autres ornements was published after his death in 1638. Its sixty-one engravings of designs for parterres andbosquets made it a style book for gardens, which influenced the design thePalais du Luxembourg, theJardin des Tuileries, and the gardens ofSaint Germain-en-Laye.
Claude Mollet (ca 1564-shortly before 1649), was the chief gardener of three French kings:Henry IV,Louis XIII, and the youngLouis XIV. His father washead gardener at theChâteau d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed. His son wasAndré Mollet, who took the French style to the Netherlands, Sweden and England.
André Le Nôtre (1613–1700) was the most important figure in the history of the French garden. The son of the gardener ofLouis XIII, he worked on the plans ofVaux-le-Vicomte, before becoming the chief gardener of Louis XIV between 1645 and 1700, and the designer of theGardens of Versailles, the greatest garden project of the age. The gardens he created became the symbols of French grandeur and rationality, setting the style for European gardens until the arrival of theEnglish landscape park in the 18th century.
Joseph-AntoineDezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765) wroteThéorie et traité de jardinage, laid out the principles of the gardenà la française, and included drawings and designs of gardens and parterres. It was reprinted many times, and was found in the libraries of aristocrats across Europe.
| Term | English translation | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Allée | Alleyway | A straight path, often lined with trees |
| Bosquet | Grove | A small group of trees, usually some distance from the house, designed as an ornamental backdrop |
| Broderie | Embroidery | A very curling decorative pattern within a parterre, created with trimmed yew or box or made by cutting the pattern out of a lawn and filling it with colored gravel |
| Jeux d'eau | Water games | An umbrella term for water features |
| Patte d'oie | Goose foot | Three or five paths or allées which spread outward from a single point |
| Parterre | On the ground | A planting bed, usually square or rectangular, containing an ornamental design made with low closely clipped hedges, colored gravel, and sometimes flowers. Parterres were usually laid out in geometric patterns, divided by gravel paths. They were intended seen from above from a house or terrace. Aparterre de gazon was made of turf with a pattern cut out and filled with gravel.[11] |
| Saut de loup | Wall | A recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier |
| Topiary | Ornamental gardening | Trees or bushes trimmed into ornamental shapes. In French gardens, they were usually trimmed into geometric shapes |
Jacques Boyceau de La Barauderie wrote in 1638 in hisTraité du jardinage, selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art that "the principal reason for the existence of a garden is the esthetic pleasure which it gives to the spectator."[12]
The form of the French garden was largely fixed by the middle of the 17th century. It had the following elements, which became typical of the formal French garden:
Ornamental flowers were relatively rare in French gardens in the 17th century and there was a limited range of colours: blue, pink, white and mauve. Brighter colours (yellow, red, orange) would not arrive until about 1730, because of botanical discoveries from around the world brought to Europe. Bulbs oftulips and other exotic flowers came fromTurkey and theNetherlands.[17] An important ornamental feature in Versailles and other gardens was thetopiary, a tree or bush carved into geometric or fantastic shapes, which were placed in rows along the main axes of the garden, alternating with statues and vases.
At Versailles flower beds were found only at theGrand Trianon and in parterres on the north side of the palace. Flowers were usually brought fromProvence, kept in pots, and changed three or four times a year. Palace records from 1686 show that the palace used 20,050jonquil bulbs, 23000cyclamen, and 1700lily plants.[18]
Most of the trees at Versailles were taken from the forest; they includedhornbeam,elm,linden, andbeech trees. There were alsochestnut trees fromTurkey andacacia trees. Large trees were dug up from the forests ofCompiègne andArtois and transplanted to Versailles. Many died in transplanting and had to be regularly replaced.
The trees in the park were trimmed both horizontally and flattened at the top, giving them the desired geometric form. Only in the 18th century were they allowed to grow freely.[19]
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Theparterres de broderie (from the FrenchFrench:broderie meaning 'embroidery') is the typical form of Frenchgarden design of theBaroque. It is characterised by a symmetrical layout of the flower beds and shearedbox hedging to form ornamental patterns known asbroderie. Even the arrangement of the flowers is designed to create a harmonious interplay of colours. Frequently found in French Baroque gardens arewater gardens,cascades,grottos andstatues. Further away from thecountry house,stately home,chateau orschloss the parterre transitions into the bosquets.
Well known examples are the gardens at thePalace of Versailles in France and thePalace of Augustusburg at Brühl, nearCologne in Germany, which have achievedUNESCO World Heritage status.
As fashions changed, many parterres de broderie of stately homes had to give way in the 19th century toEnglish landscape gardens and have not been reinstated.
The designers of the French garden saw their work as a branch of architecture, which simply extended the space of the building to the space outside the walls, and ordered nature according to the rules of geometry, optics and perspective. Gardens were designed like buildings, with a succession of rooms which a visitor could pass through following an established route, hallways, and vestibules with adjoining chambers. They used the language of architecture in their plans; the spaces were referred to assalles,chambres andthéâtres of greenery. The "walls" were composed of hedges, and "stairways" of water. On the ground weretapis, or carpets, of grass,brodés, or embroidered, with plants, and the trees were formed intorideaux, or curtains, along the alleys.
Just as architects installed systems of water into the chateaux, they laid out elaborate hydraulic systems to supply the fountains and basins of the garden. Long basins full of water replaced mirrors, and the water from fountains replaced chandeliers. In the bosquet du Marais in the gardens of Versailles,André Le Nôtre placed tables of white and red marble for serving meals. The flowing water in the basins and fountains imitated water pouring into carafes and crystal glasses.[20] The dominant role of architecture in the garden did not change until the 18th century, when theEnglish garden arrived in Europe and the inspiration for gardens began to come not from architecture but fromromantic painting.
The gardenà la française was often used as a setting for plays, spectacles, concerts, and displays offireworks. In 1664, Louis XIV celebrated a six-day festival in the gardens, with cavalcades, comedies, ballets, and fireworks. Gardens of Versailles included a theatre of water, decorated with fountains and statues of the infancy of the gods (destroyed between 1770 and 1780). Full-size ships were constructed for sailing on the Grand Canal, and the garden had an open-air ballroom surrounded by trees; a water organ,a labyrinth, and a grotto.[21]
The architects of the gardenà la française did not stop at applying the rules of geometry andperspective to their work. In the first published treatises on gardens, in the 17th century, they devoted chapters to the subject of how to correct or improve perspective, usually to create the illusion of greater distance. This was often done by having alleys become narrower, or having rows of trees that converged, or were trimmed so that they became gradually shorter, as they went farther away from the centre of the garden or from the house. This created the illusion that the perspective was longer and that the garden was larger than it actually was.
Another trick used by French garden designers was theha-ha (fr:saut de loup). This was a method used to conceal fences which crossed long alleys or perspectives. A deep and wide trench with vertical wall of stone on one side was dug wherever a fence crossed a view, or a fence was placed in bottom of the trench, so that it was invisible to the viewer.
As gardens became more and more ambitious and elaborate through the 17th century, the garden no longer served as a decoration for the chateau. AtChantilly and atSaint-Germain, the chateau became a decorative element of the much larger garden.
The appearance of the French garden in the 17th and 18th centuries was a result of the development of several new technologies. The first wasgéoplastie, the science of moving large amounts of earth. This science had several technological developments. This science had come from the military, following the introduction of cannon and modern siege warfare, when they were required to dig trenches and build walls and earth fortifications quickly. This led to the development of baskets for carrying earth on the back, wheelbarrows, carts and wagons. Andre LeNotre adapted these methods to build the level terraces, and to dig canals and basins on a grand scale.[22]
A second development was inhydrology, bringing water to the gardens for the irrigation of the plants and for use in the many fountains. This development was not fully successful at Versailles, which was on a plateau; even with 221 pumps and a system of canals bringing water from the Seine, and the construction in 1681 of a huge pumping machine, theMachine de Marly, there was still not enough water pressure for all the fountains of Versailles to be turned on at once.Fontainiers were placed along the routes of the King's promenades, and turned on the fountains at each site just before he arrived.[23]
A related development took place inhydroplasie, the art and science of shaping water into different shapes as it came out the fountain. The shape of the water depended upon the force of the water and the shape of the nozzle. New forms created through this art were namedtulipe (the tulip),double gerbe (the double sheaf),Girandole(centerpiece)candélabre (candelabra), andcorbeille (bouquet),La Boule en l'air (Ball in the air), andL'Evantail (the fan). This art was closely associated with thefireworks of the time, which tried to achieve similar effects with fire instead of water. Both the fountains and fireworks were often accompanied by music, and were designed to show how nature (water and fire) could be shaped by the will of man.[24]
Another important development was inhorticulture, in the ability to raise plants from warmer climates in the northern European climate by protecting them inside buildings and bringing them outdoors in pots. The firstorangeries were built in France in the 16th century following the introduction of the orange tree after the Italian Wars. TheVersailles Orangerie had walls five meters thick, with a double wall that maintains temperatures in winter between 5 and 8 degrees Celsius (41 and 46 °F). Today it can shelter 1055 trees.
Source:[25]
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