French Renaissance gardens – Wikipedia

THE French Renaissance gardens are a garden style inspired originally by the gardens of the Italian Renaissance, which later evolved to give birth to the larger and more formal style of the French garden under the reign of Louis XIV, from the middle of XVII ^{It is} century ^{[ first ]} .

In 1495, King Charles VIII and his nobles reported the Renaissance style in France following their warlike campaign in Italy ^{[ first ]} . The French Renaissance gardens experienced their peak in the gardens of the Royal Castle of Fontainebleau and the castles of Blois and Chenonceau.

The French Renaissance gardens are characterized by symmetrical and geometric flowerbeds or flowerbeds, pots in pots, alleys of sand and gravel, terraces, stairs and ramps, running waters in the form of canals, waterfalls and monumental fountains, and by the extensive use of artificial caves, labyrinths and statues of mythological characters ^{[ 2 ]} . They became an extension of the castles they surrounded, and were designed to illustrate the ideals of measurement and proportion of the Renaissance and to recall the virtues of ancient Rome ^{[ 2 ]} .

The Renaissance gardens go from the utility enclosure, all in charge of Christian symbolism, with large perspectives using pagan vocabulary, and whose main goal is the only delight, pleasure. Aesthetic and personal considerations then become essential ^{[ 3 ]} . The space of the garden is less and less the influence of religious precepts (notwithstanding the visions of Erasmus, of Palissy). Iconological references are only exclusively classic: they belong to mythology by the use of its symbolism, illustrated themes, statuary … The gardens also have a political dimension (the big gardens are drawn to the glory of the master places), and the evolution of the art of living makes it the framework of parties and sumptuous banquets. Their history is also a reflection of that, parallel, of botany (introductions of new species, approaching more and more scientific) and the evolution of theories and cultural practices ^{[ 3 ]} .

At XIII ^{It is} century, the Italian landscape architect, Pietro de ‘Crescenzi published a treaty, entitled Work in rural areas of convenience , which presented a formal plan for gardens, adorned with topiary sculptures, trees and shrubs cut in architectural forms, according to a tradition started by the Romans. King Charles V of France had it translated into French in 1373, and the new Italian style began to appear in France ^{[ 4 ]} .

Another great influence writer was Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), who wrote in 1450 a booklet, About building , for Laurent de Médicis. He applied the geometric principles of Vitruve to draw the buildings of buildings and the gardens. He suggested that the dwellings should have a view of the gardens, and that the gardens had to have “porticos to give shadow, cradles where climbing plants would grow on marble columns, and that there must be vases and even fun statues, as long as they are not obscene ” ^{[ 5 ]} .

In his drawing of the Gardens of the Belvedere in Rome, the architect Bramante (1444–1544) introduced the idea of ​​perspective, using a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the palace, along which he had the flowerbeds and the fountains ^{[ 6 ]} . This became a central characteristic of Renaissance gardens.

A popular novel by the Moine Francesco Colonna, published in Venice in 1499, entitled The dream of poliphile , allegorical journey of Poliphile in imaginary regions in search of his love, polished, had a huge influence on the gardens of the time. Ideas, like that of a “garden island” in a lake, such as that of the garden of Boboli in Florence, statues of giants coming out of the ground in the park of the villa of Pratolino, and the theme of the labyrinth, all made Reversals of imaginary trips from Poliphile ^{[ 6 ]} . All these elements were to appear in the gardens of the French Renaissance.

During the Louis XII style (from 1495 to 1525/1530) ^{[ 7 ]} , réalisations de PACELLO by Mercogly [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In this art in full mutation that is the Louis XII style, the gardens become more important than architecture: the arrival in Amboise of Italian artists including the Neapolitan gardener Pacello da Mercogliano was originally under Charles VIII Creation of the very first gardens of the French Renaissance thanks to new landscape creations, the installation of a menagerie. And agronomic acclimatization work ^{[ 8 ]} .

THE Jardins du Roy At the Royal Domaine de Château-Gaillard [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

THE Jardins du Roy At the royal domain of Château-Gaillard represent the first works that Pacello da Mercogliano led to France in terms of landscape.

It was from 1496 that the first axial landscape perspective were made in Château-Gaillard in Château-Gaillard ” French-style “Integrating a” water mirror Brought by the amasse and the course of the exsurgence that feeds it. In terms of agronomic acclimatization, Pacello da Mercogliano led the first citrus acclimations of citrus (especially orange and lemon trees) and peach from northern France by developing greenhouses in hot greenhouses and creating the first French royal orangery there (associating the horticultural technique of ” Society boxes ), Obtaining the queen-price plum as well as the development of the northern culture of melons and tomatoes within a ” chartreuse »With horticultural plots separated by windbreaker walls.

Louis-XII will give in the estate in 1505 against an annual lease of 30 floors and a bouquet of orange flowers per year ^{[ 9 ]} .

The Château d’Amboise [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Following the work carried out at the Royal Domaine de Château-Gaillard (Amboise), Pacello Da Mercogliano and his team would have contributed to the development of gardens and the creation of a menagerie at the Château d’Amboise. However, no work account and no recognized archive explicitly mentions their interventions on them.

The Château de Blois and the Château de Gaillon [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In 1499, Louis XII entrusted the realization of the gardens of the Château de Blois to the same team which was subsequently engaged by Georges d’Amboise to make flowerbeds on different levels at his castle of Gaillon: the garden was planted with flowerbeds Flowers and fruit trees. The Entrance Power represented the coat of arms of France in flowers. Busons were cut in the form of horsemen, boats and birds. Imposing marble fountains embellished the whole.

Bury Castle [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Forming a transition with the first Renaissance, the gardens of the Château de Bury ^{[ ten ]} were built between 1511 and 1524 by Florimond Robertet, Secretary of State of Kings Louis XII and François I ^{is [ 11 ]} .

Roberttet had visited the Villa Medici in Fiesole and wanted to reproduce the terraced gardens that there was seen. The Bury castle standing out from the traditional design of medieval fortresses, was closely integrated with its gardens. Visitors crossed a first quadrangular flowerbed inside the castle before completing on two geometric gardens extending behind the building. Decorated with fountains and surmounted by a wooden gallery, their main axis linked the entrance to the palace to the chapel located at the opposite end of the estate ^{[ twelfth ]} .

Like the Italian Renaissance gardens, the gardens of the Château de Bury developed partly on the shores of a hill, offering a remarkable view of the Blois forest ^{[ 13 ]} . But the new element was in the middle of the courtyard of the castle where Florimond Roberttet placed a bronze copy of the David of Michelangelo, offered by the Republic of Florence ^{[ 14 ]} .

The whole was destroyed in 1642.

Under the Renaissance (1515/1530- Beginning of the XV II ^{It is} century) ^{[ 15 ]} [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The Château de Blois [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In 1499, Louis XII entrusted the realization of the gardens of the Château de Blois to the same team which was subsequently engaged by Georges d’Amboise to make flowerbeds on different levels at his castle of Gaillon: the garden was planted with flowerbeds Flowers and fruit trees ^{[ 16 ]} .

When Louis XII died in 1515, François I ^is had gardens made in the new style on three terraces at different levels surrounded by the old walls of his castle in Blois ^{[ 16 ]} .

After him his son Henri II launched embellishment of the garden ^{[ 17 ]} . The king’s garden is decorated with cradles of greenery which echoes those of the queen’s garden . Around 1554, there are also cross paths with four cabinets at the intersection of the four alleys. An artificial pond is also built at a place called Bornaz Around 1556 ^{[ 17 ]} .

Following him, François II undertakes to facilitate the connection between the gardens of Blois and the nearby forest, he creates alleys, the marks of small pavilions of frames, underline them by the plantation of Ormes and the creation of ditches ^{[ 17 ]} .

The Blois gardens mark in the history of the French garden an important step. Indeed, with Blois the gardens grow and high terrace appears in the French garden. The French composition remains however very fragmented, compared to its Italian cousin in which unity already reigns ^{[ 17 ]} . However, the effort made to Blois in the introduction of transalpine decorative elements is clearly visible, by importing large flowerbeds, ornate and Italianized fountains and especially by the attempt to create a gushing gambling in the gardens ^{[ 16 ]} .

Blois do not, however, mark a turning point in the art of gardens of the first Renaissance, it constitutes a milestone, a research laboratory as there were many others in Loire Valley, in Bury, Azay-le-Rideau or Chenonceau .

In addition to flower beds, the gardens produced a wide variety of vegetables and fruit, including orange trees and lemon trees in bins, which had returned in winter ^{[ 18 ]} . The building that housed them, which still exists, was the first orangery in France ^{[ 17 ]} .

The gardens of the Château de Blois gradually disappear during the XV II ^{It is} century, for lack of maintenance and give way to XIX ^{It is} century to the Avenue de l’Ambarcadère , Today Avenue du Docteur Jean Laigret , in order to facilitate the work of the railway station (1847). The last vestiges of the garden were destroyed in 1890 when the Place Victor-Hugo ^{[ 16 ]} .

CHARTE DE CHENONCEAU [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The castle of Chenonceau had two distinct gardens, the first created in 1551 for Diane de Poitiers, favorite of King Henri II, with a large flowerbed and a jet of water, and the second, smaller, created for Catherine de Médicis in 1560 On a terrace built above the Cher, divided into compartments, with a pool in the center ^{[ 19 ]} .

By way of introduction, a Great alley of honor leads to the castle for almost a km. On each side of this aisle: the farm of XVI ^{It is} century to the right, the Labyrinth and the Caryatids to the left.

There are two main gardens: that of Diane de Poitiers and that of Catherine de Médicis, located on both sides of the Brands , vestige of the fortifications preceding the construction of the current castle.

In 1565 the gardens of the left bank of the Cher were “newly built”, as described by Sonia Lesot in her work ^{[ 20 ]} :

“The Fontaine du Rocher de Chenonceau built by Bernard (Palissy) for Catherine (de Médicis); It was already existing in the time of Diane de Poitiers, and had been used to feed the basins of his flowerbed […] (in) the Parc de Francueil, on the left bank of the Cher […] was fitted a low garden by the river , composed of two vast squares separated from an alley drawn in the extension of the gallery, accentuating the North-South axis already so strong. The hill was pierced with caves. »»

The Jardin de Diane de Poitiers, whose entrance is controlled by the house of the manager: the Chancellery, built at XVI ^{It is} century ; At the foot of which there is a pier, embellished with a vineyard, essential access to any walk on the Cher.

In its center is a water jet, described by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau in his book The most excellent boutments in France (1576). From a surprising design for the time, the water jet springs from a large pebble cut accordingly and falls “in wreath” towards a pentagonal receptacle of white stone ^{[ 19 ]} . This garden is protected from the Cher floods by raised terraces from which we have beautiful views of the flower beds and the castle.

The garden of Catherine de Médicis is more intimate, with a central basin, and faces the west side of the castle.

The floral decoration of gardens, renewed in spring and summer, requires the establishment of 130,000 flower plants cultivated in the field ^{[ 20 ]} .

The castle of Fontainebleau [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The gardens of the Château de Fontainebleau, located in a forest which was the hunting reserve of the Capetian kings, were created by François I ^is From 1528. The gardens include fountains, flowerbeds, a forest of pines brought from Provence and the first artificial cave in France in 1541. Catherine de Médicis commanded bronze copies of the statues which adorned the belvedere in Rome. A statue of Hercules at the rest of Michelangelo adorns the lake garden. In 1594, Henri IV added a small island in the lake, connected to the court of the fountains by a bridge ^{[ 21 ]} .

Fontainebleau park extends over 115 hectares. The one who rose under François I ^is We are known to us thanks to the drawings of Jacques Ier Androuet of the hoop, and to his plates engraved in his work “the most excellent bastiments in France”.

The Diane garden , north of the castle, was raised by Catherine de Médicis on a space already fitted out by François I ^is and at the time bore the name of Queen’s garden. Ploted in regular flowerbeds, the garden was redeveloped under Henri IV and partitioned to the north by an orangery but it is again altered under Louis XIV before being transformed into an English garden at XIX ^{It is} century, under Napoleon I ^is Then Louis-Philippe, where the orangery is destroyed. This garden owes its name to the Diane fountain developed by Francini in 1603 and surmounted by Diane at La Biche Made by the Barthélemy prior bronzier.

The cave of pine garden located on the ground floor of the southwest pavilion of the White Horse Court and characteristic of taste for water -by XVI ^{It is} century, presents arcades with rustic bosses supported by Atlanteans in the form of monstrous satyrs opening on an interior decorated with frescoes (animals in reliefs, pebbles, shells, etc.). Its architecture due to Serlio or Primatice (the opinions are divergent) indicates a certain influence of the contemporary achievements of Jules Romain ^{[ 22 ]} , was very likely made in 1545 ^{[ 23 ]} , while the inner decor was only finished under Henri II. Thanks to two preparatory drawings kept at the Louvre museum, we know that Primatice is the designer of painted frescoes. There Pine cave was the subject of important restorations, in 1984-1986 and then in 2007, which made it possible to restore the initial composition of the decor of the vault and to replace the soil at its old level.

Located in the middle of the garden, in the hollow of a grove ^{[ 24 ]} , the Bliaud or blau fountain t, called Belle-Eau from the XVI ^{It is} century and which gave its name to the castle, flows into a small pool Square with cut sides.

The « On the ground », Or« Large garden “, or ” King’s garden »Was created under François I ^is , and retraced under Henri IV then redrawn by André Le Nôtre. THE Tiber basins and of Romulus draw their names from a sculptural group which successively adorned them to XVI ^{It is} And XVII ^{It is} centuries. Melted during the revolution, The Tiber , molded again according to the original kept at the Louvre museum has now found its place. THE Central basin was decorated in 1817 with a sink succeeding a fountain in the shape of a rock called the ” boiling pot »Which existed at this location at XVII ^{It is} century. Closed of walls between 1528 and 1533, Serlio had imagined for this garden a pavilion of pleasure. Arranged between 1660 and 1664, it included fies forming the figures of King Louis XIV and the Queen Mother Anne of Austria, which disappeared in XVIII ^{It is} century. The terraces were planted with lime trees under Napoleon I ^is .

The waterfall basin was built in 1661-1662 at the end of the flowerbed XVIII ^{It is} century, only presents only a basin with niches decorated with marble. The basin has been decorated in its center since 1866 with a Eagle defending its prey in bronze, by Cain (Fonte by Vittoz) ^{[ 25 ]} .

The Park of nearly 80 hectares was created under Henri IV, which makes the large channel widen there of 1.2 km Long between 1606 and 1609, and made several species of trees plant there, including fir trees, elms and fruit trees. Previously François I ^is had established the ” King’s trellis », Long of 1,2 too km , where was cultivated on the south face of the wall the golden Chasselas of Fontainebleau ^{[ 26 ]} . The Canal , preceding almost 60 years of age that of the Versailles gardens, quickly became a place of attraction. You could walk there by boat and Louis XIII had a hassle sailed there. It is powered by several aqueducts established in XVI ^{It is} century.

The castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The gardens of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye mark the start of the transition to a new style, which will later be called “French garden”. These gardens were traced in 1595 by the royal gardener, Claude Mollet, for King Henri IV ^{[ 18 ]} .

The drawings made by Alessandro Francini in 1614 show that at that date the stairs in hemicycles starting from the first terrace made in front of the castle in 1563 and surrounding the Mercury fountain are produced, probably from 1594, as well as the stairs leading to the third terrace.

In 1599, Henri IV decided to change the plan of the garden and decided to build a Doric gallery on the third terrace against the retaining wall opening onto the garden and containing caves developed under the second terrace. Thomas Platter indicates in his travel account that November 1599 , Tommaso Francini Avait Tarminate the Dragon Fountain , in the center of the gallery, and the Neptune cave or Sea triumph , under the southern ramp, he was building the Grotte of organs (or young lady) under the north ramp. Caves are arranged under the third terrace: the Perseus cave , the Orpheus cave and the Torchbone . The history of the realization of this part of the garden is better understood from the archives found in Florence ^{[ 18 ]} .

The work continuing with the development of caves with their automata by water jets, due to the Thomas brothers and Alexandre Francini. The flowerbeds of the French garden, which spread to the Seine on five terraces, were designed by the landscaper Étienne Dupérac and the gardener Claude Mollet. He writes in his book Theater of plans and gardening who received the king’s order to plant the garden of the Château Neuf in 1595 ^{[ 27 ]} .

Charles Normand indicates that he had found in the national archives an exchange contract with the Lord of Bréhant dated first ^is September 1605 allowing the king to acquire the lands and lordships of ” Pec ” And ” Vézinay “. By letters patent of February 17, 1623 , the king grants Tommaso Francini, sieur des Grands-Maisons (commune of Villepreux), ” The load of the waters and fountains of houses, chasteaux and gardens of Paris, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau and other generally any, to enjoy honors and powers mention, and the wages of twelve cens pounds by year, to do with eighteen cens pounds of which he enjoyed the sum of three millet pounds ». In 1625, Tommaso Francini was cited in an act as an engineer in water artifice received ” for the maintenance of the caves DUD. Chasteau de Sainct-Germain, the sum of twelve cens pounds ». In 1636, he received 900 pounds for the caves of the Château de Saint-Germain.

André du Chesne describes the garden with its caves in 1630 in Antiquity and research of cities, chasteaux and more remarkable places in all of France ^{[ 28 ]} .

From 1649, the gardens were no longer maintained because of the Fronde wars.

Around 1660, the upper terrace collapsed by deteriorating the hemicycle staircase and the caves of the Doric gallery. A new staircase with straight ramps is built in 1662 and the caves are restored but not the hydraulic mechanisms.

When the revolution arrives, the Château Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is seized as a national property. It was then sold to the former manager of the Count of Artois who demolishes him in order to lotroing the land and selling the materials. Today only the Henri IV pavilion remains, the Garden pavilion , a terrace and its two ramps at the end of the Thiers street overlooking Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny And some vestiges in the cellars of the district (at 3 rue des Arcades, for example).

The Château de Villandry [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The gardens of the Château de Villandry, in the Loire department, are the reconstruction from ancient texts from a renaissance garden typical of the XVI ^{It is} century.

These gardens are divided into four terraces: a upper terrace with the sun garden (2008 creation), one with the water garden surrounded by a cloister of lime trees, then a terrace welcoming the ornament garden or embroidery garden drumped boxwood and topiary and finally a lower terrace with the decorative vegetable garden , also forming a embroidery drawing.

The ornamental garden above the vegetable patch extends the salons of the castle. Go up to the belvedere allows you to have a magnificent view of the whole. It is made up of love gardens Divided into four sets:

• Tender love symbolized by hearts separated from small flames;
• love passion With hearts broken by passion, engraved in a movement recalling dance;
• Love fickle With 4 fans in the corners to represent the lightness of feelings and women hiding behind fans to observe other men;
• Tragic love With daggers and swords to represent love rivalry.

The water garden at the southern end of the whole is of classic creation around a large piece of water representing a Louis XV mirror and surrounded by a vegetable cloister of lime trees.

The whole also includes a labyrinth planted with charmilles, the aim of which is to rise spiritually to the central platform, a Simple garden , that is to say aromatic and medicinal plants, traditional in the Middle Ages, the forest with flowery terraces around a greenhouse and a beautiful pavilion of XVIII ^{It is} century, The hearing pavilion , Finally The Garden of the Sun , the latest addition, with 3 spaces of greenery, the room of clouds with blue and white tones, the sun’s bedroom where the yellow-orange and the children’s room dominate with its apple trees.

The garden fountains and arbors were restored from 1994 ^{[ 29 ]} . The gardens form a set limited to the north by the road to Tours, to the south by the rural path of the sheepfold, to the west by the fence wall along the plant labyrinth.

They obtained the remarkable garden label ^{[ 30 ]}

Chronology of the Garden of the French Renaissance [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Related articles [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• Marie-Luise Gothein  (in) , A History of garden art, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day , United Kingdom, published by Cambridge Library Collection, 2014, (ISBN  1108076149 ) ; (ISBN  9781108076142 ) , vol.   2 : “From the Renaissance to the present day in France”
• Yves-Marie Allain et Janine Christiany, The art of gardens in Europe , Citadelles and Mazenod, Paris, 2006
• Claude Wenzler, Garden architecture , Éditions Ouest-France, 2003
• Weather Impellu, Gardens, vegetable gardens and labyrinths , Hazan, Paris, 2007.
• Philippe provost, History of gardens , Sud-Ouest Éditions, 2006