DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0423
394 History of Garden Art
began right back in Roman times. Louis XII. was born there, and he rebuilt the castle
on the old foundations. An unusual character was given to the place as a whole by the
much-admired wing on the town side which was added by Francis L Louis moved his
residence from Amboise to this favourite place of his, and took with him Pasello, who
found a growing field for the exercise of his activities. There was not much garden. The
little plot which in mediaeval fashion was under the dungeon-keep, but was in this
instance deeply sunk, was continued in narrow strips, and had already been widened into
a large piece. This old ground was converted into the lowest parterre of a garden that
rose in three mighty terraces with powerful supporting walls. People were not at all
afraid of the difficulties of large subterranean works, and for these the immense sub-
structures below the high-built castles of the Middle Ages served as patterns. But the
garden on each individual terrace was still a
garden all to itself, having no connection what-
soever with the other gardens on terraces above
or below.
The great Roman invention of connecting
steps had hardly established itself in Italy; and
France, like all the Northern countries, adopted
it late, and then but sparingly. And the different
parts of a garden are as little related to the castle
as they are to each other. The moat dug by the
wall, which goes round three sides of the isolated
building, seems to have lost its water very soon
and then to have been turned into a fruit-garden.
Over the trench Louis made a gallery from the
corner of the burial-ground to the middle terrace,
the queen's garden, which was laid out as the
chief flower-garden. All round it were pleasant
wooden galleries covered with greenery, and to
make these the king summoned the best joiners in
the kingdom. The separate beds—called in the accounts parquet—were surrounded with
trellis borders: accoudoir.
In 1503 a marble fountain, made by the Italian Pacchiarotti at Tours for the sum of
662 livres, was set up in the middle pavilion, which had a St. Michael on the top. The
real engineer of the waters was Fra Giocondo, who had come over with Charles, and now
received an extra commission for his skill. The fountain was an octagonal basin with two
shells above made of white marble: the remains of these are still kept at the castle. The
piece de resistance is the little chapel (Fig. 314), a great favourite of Anne of Bretagne; and
the king also liked to say his prayers in it. It is the one thing in the gardens that has
been preserved. The highest of the terraces, called the King's Garden, had its chief
ornament, the pergola, put there only in Henry II.'s day. This was also the time of greatest
success and beauty, when the king's table was enriched every day with fruit, and when
Blois could boast of wonderful mulberry-trees. Then came the period when this castle
and others on the Loire were more and more forsaken for the palaces of Paris because
they were too near. For Paris was the centre of political life, and more and more
FIG. 314. BLOIS—CHAPEL OF ANNE OF BRETAGNE
began right back in Roman times. Louis XII. was born there, and he rebuilt the castle
on the old foundations. An unusual character was given to the place as a whole by the
much-admired wing on the town side which was added by Francis L Louis moved his
residence from Amboise to this favourite place of his, and took with him Pasello, who
found a growing field for the exercise of his activities. There was not much garden. The
little plot which in mediaeval fashion was under the dungeon-keep, but was in this
instance deeply sunk, was continued in narrow strips, and had already been widened into
a large piece. This old ground was converted into the lowest parterre of a garden that
rose in three mighty terraces with powerful supporting walls. People were not at all
afraid of the difficulties of large subterranean works, and for these the immense sub-
structures below the high-built castles of the Middle Ages served as patterns. But the
garden on each individual terrace was still a
garden all to itself, having no connection what-
soever with the other gardens on terraces above
or below.
The great Roman invention of connecting
steps had hardly established itself in Italy; and
France, like all the Northern countries, adopted
it late, and then but sparingly. And the different
parts of a garden are as little related to the castle
as they are to each other. The moat dug by the
wall, which goes round three sides of the isolated
building, seems to have lost its water very soon
and then to have been turned into a fruit-garden.
Over the trench Louis made a gallery from the
corner of the burial-ground to the middle terrace,
the queen's garden, which was laid out as the
chief flower-garden. All round it were pleasant
wooden galleries covered with greenery, and to
make these the king summoned the best joiners in
the kingdom. The separate beds—called in the accounts parquet—were surrounded with
trellis borders: accoudoir.
In 1503 a marble fountain, made by the Italian Pacchiarotti at Tours for the sum of
662 livres, was set up in the middle pavilion, which had a St. Michael on the top. The
real engineer of the waters was Fra Giocondo, who had come over with Charles, and now
received an extra commission for his skill. The fountain was an octagonal basin with two
shells above made of white marble: the remains of these are still kept at the castle. The
piece de resistance is the little chapel (Fig. 314), a great favourite of Anne of Bretagne; and
the king also liked to say his prayers in it. It is the one thing in the gardens that has
been preserved. The highest of the terraces, called the King's Garden, had its chief
ornament, the pergola, put there only in Henry II.'s day. This was also the time of greatest
success and beauty, when the king's table was enriched every day with fruit, and when
Blois could boast of wonderful mulberry-trees. Then came the period when this castle
and others on the Loire were more and more forsaken for the palaces of Paris because
they were too near. For Paris was the centre of political life, and more and more
FIG. 314. BLOIS—CHAPEL OF ANNE OF BRETAGNE