Author: Michel Baridon Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812240782 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
Michel Baridon traces the history of the most famous gardens in the world from their inception through the three centuries of eventful history that they have witnessed.
Author: Alain Baraton Publisher: Rizzoli Publications ISBN: 0847842703 Category : Gardening Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
An “eccentric and charming” love letter to Versailles Palace and its storied grounds, by the man who knows them best—for gardening lovers and Francophiles (New York Times) Tour Versailles’ 2,100 acres as its gardener-in-chief describes its fascinating history and his 40 years of living and working in the gardens. In Alain Baraton’s Versailles, every grove tells a story. As the gardener-in-chief, Baraton lives on its grounds, and since 1982 he has devoted his life to the gardens, orchards, and fields that were loved by France’s kings and queens as much as the palace itself. His memoir captures the essence of the connection between gardeners and the earth they tend, no matter how humble or grand. With the charm of a natural storyteller, Baraton weaves his own path as a gardener with the life of the Versailles grounds, and his role overseeing its team of 80 gardeners tending to 350,000 trees and 30 miles of walkways across 2,100 acres. He richly evokes this legendary place and the history it has witnessed but also its quieter side that he feels privileged to know: The same gardens that hosted the lavish lawn parties of Louis XIV and the momentous meeting between Marie Antoinette and the Cardinal de Rohan remain enchanted—private places where visitors try to get themselves locked in at night, lovers go looking for secluded hideaways, and elegant grandmothers secretly make cuttings to take back to their own gardens. A tremendous bestseller in France, The Gardener of Versailles gives an unprecedentedly intimate view of one of the grandest places on earth.
Author: Pierre-André Lablaude Publisher: ISBN: Category : Gardens Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
Throughout the nineteenth century, the gardens were maintained, restored and replanted, and today they are being further restored to their original state, reflecting the most significant contributions made by each of the preceding periods.
Author: Chandra Mukerji Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521599597 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 424
Book Description
In seventeenth-century France, land took on new importance for the practice of politics and rituals of court life. In her major new book, Chandra Mukerji highlights the connections between the two seemingly disparate activities of engineering and garden design. She shows how, at Versailles in particular, the royal park showcased French skills in using nature and art to design a distinctively French landscape and create a naturalized political territoriality. She challenges the association of state power with social and legal structures alone and demonstrates the importance for Louis XIV and his state of a controlled physical site, a demarcated French territory within the wider European geo-political continent.
Author: Robert W. Berger Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 081224107X Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
The first book to examine how the vast gardens of Versailles were used as a setting for the receptions of ambassadors, heads of state, and other visiting dignitaries who conducted diplomatic and political business with France.
Author: Ian Thompson Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 1582346313 Category : Gardening Languages : en Pages : 392
Book Description
Presents an illustrated account of the creation of one of the world's most dazzling and extensive gardens, the gardens at the palace of Versailles, noting the unique four-decade friendship between Louis XIV, the creator of the garden, and Andre Le Ntre, the gardener.
Author: Christian Duvernois Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications ISBN: Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 232
Book Description
Marie-Antoinette has been idolized as the height of eighteenth-century French style and vilified as the spark that ignited the French Revolution. This book departs from such traditional interpretations of the infamous queen’s reign and chooses to reflect on the humanistic aspects of her private realm. To escape the formalities and royal obligations of Louis XVI’s court, Marie-Antoinette created a private realm of pleasure for herself at the Petit Trianon and Hameau, where she planted the first Anglo-Chinese garden; created a trysting grotto; a working farm; and revolutionized architecture and gardening trends for the century to come. Marie-Antoinette’s entire private domain and its story are told in beautiful photographic detail by François Halard for the first time since its recent restoration and accompanied by well-researched texts by garden expert Christian Duvernois.
Author: Thomas F. Hedin Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812298373 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 297
Book Description
Ovid tells the story of Latona, the mother by Jupiter of Apollo and Diana. In her flight from the jealous Juno, she arrives faint and parched on the coast of Asia Minor. Kneeling to sip from a pond, Latona is met by the local peasants, who not only deny her effort but muddy the water in pure malice. Enraged, Latona calls a curse down upon the stingy peasants, turning them to frogs. In his masterful study, Thomas F. Hedin reveals how and why a fountain of this strange legend was installed in the heart of Versailles in the 1660s, the inaugural decade of Louis XIV’s patronage there. The natural supply of water was scarce and unwieldy, and it took the genius of the king’s hydraulic engineers, working in partnership with the landscape architect André Le Nôtre, to exploit it. If Ovid’s peasants were punished for their stubborn denial of water, so too the obstacles of coarse nature at Versailles were conquered; the aquatic iconography of the fountain was equivalent to the aquatic reality of the gardens. Latona was designed by Charles Le Brun, the most powerful artist at the court of Louis XIV, and carried out by Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy. The 1660s were rich in artistic theory in France, and the artists of the fountain delivered substantial lectures at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on subjects of central concern to their current work. What they professed was what they were visualizing in the gardens. As such, the fountain is an insider’s guide to the leading artistic ideals of the moment. Louis XIV was viewed as the reincarnation of Apollo, the god of creativity, the inspiration of artists and scientists. Hedin’s original argument is that Latona was a double declaration: a glorification of the king and a proud manifesto by artists.
Author: Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art ISBN: 1588396223 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
What was it like to visit one of the most magnificent courts of Europe? Based on a wealth of contemporary documents and surviving works of art, this lavish book explores the experiences of those who swarmed the palace and grounds of Versailles when it was the seat of the French monarchy. Engaging essays describe methods of transportation, the elaborate codes of dress and etiquette, precious diplomatic gifts, royal audiences, and tours of the palace and gardens. Also presented are the many types of visitors and guests who eagerly made their way to this center of power and culture, including day-trippers and Grand Tourists, European diplomats, overseas ambassadors, incognito travelers, and Americans. Through paintings and portraits, furniture, costumes and uniforms, arms and armor, guidebooks, and other works of art, Visitors to Versailles illuminates what travelers encountered at court and what impressions, gifts, and souvenirs they took home with them. In bringing to life their experiences, this sumptuously illustrated volume reminds us why Versailles has enchanted generations of visitors from the ancien régime to the present day.
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Author: Michel Baridon
Author: Alain Baraton
Author: Pierre-André Lablaude
Author: Chandra Mukerji
Author: Robert W. Berger
Author: Stéphane Pincas
Author: Ian Thompson
Author: Christian Duvernois
Author: Thomas F. Hedin
Author: Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide