DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0429
400 History of Garden Art
old ground-plan, made use of such trenches as decoration, and that they had a great
influence on gardens as time went on.
Two castles whose Renaissance style dates from the reign of Francis L give a striking
picture of the first phase in the development of this kind of castle in relation to its gardens:
these are Fontainebleau and Chantilly. The first was an ancient hunting-seat, in the
middle of a great wood (Fig. 317). Here Francis I. built his fine castle, which embraced
a number of courts grouped in no sort of order. A wide canal ran round the greater part
of the buildings; and as there was a watery marsh close by, it was easy for the king
to convert it into the gigantic pond which bordered the castle on one side. Near this
pond, which was always famous, and still is, for its supply of carp, there is an avenue of
four rows of trees extending from the old house to a pavilion at the entrance gate. On
the other side of this beautiful
promenade, which is raised like
a bank, there was then a garden
of fruit and meadow land
where the parterre now is. Not
only does the wide canal run
through the middle, but every
preau with its great trees is sur-
rounded by a little canal as well.
On the other side of the
pond Francis made the so-
called Jardin des Pins, probably
a kind of winter garden, planted
for the most part with fir-trees,
between which Du Cerceau's
engraving shows formal beds
evidently laid out in box, and
perhaps containing useful vege-
tables. Here too there was a
wide canal along the facade
of the castle, the Gallery of
Ulysses. At the end of the gallery a grotto under the corner pavilion completed this
beautiful garden picture: great arches of rustica, flanked by giants (Fig. 318), reminding
one of Giulio Romano's work at Palazzo del Te, lead to the inner part, which is adorned
with water-fowl and sea-beasts, and has running fountains. There is a little nymphseum
in front forming a court with pleasant walls and fountains, overarched with green.
This place is now the only part of the garden of Francis I., which (pretty well pre-
served) shows what it was before it was changed into an English park. But the real flower-
garden was on the north of the castle, inside the canal. This little garden, cut up into four
squares with wooden pillars marking them off, and laid out with box, flowers, and earth
of various colours, contained as its finest ornament and central point the so-called Diana
of Versailles. Apparently Francis put up other statues as well. It is an odd thing that a
pergola which ought to give a sort of connection between the garden and the informal
facade is, according to the drawing, not in the same line with the garden.
By permission of Mr. P. D. Hepworth
FIG. 318. FONTAINEBLEAU—GROTTE DES PINS
old ground-plan, made use of such trenches as decoration, and that they had a great
influence on gardens as time went on.
Two castles whose Renaissance style dates from the reign of Francis L give a striking
picture of the first phase in the development of this kind of castle in relation to its gardens:
these are Fontainebleau and Chantilly. The first was an ancient hunting-seat, in the
middle of a great wood (Fig. 317). Here Francis I. built his fine castle, which embraced
a number of courts grouped in no sort of order. A wide canal ran round the greater part
of the buildings; and as there was a watery marsh close by, it was easy for the king
to convert it into the gigantic pond which bordered the castle on one side. Near this
pond, which was always famous, and still is, for its supply of carp, there is an avenue of
four rows of trees extending from the old house to a pavilion at the entrance gate. On
the other side of this beautiful
promenade, which is raised like
a bank, there was then a garden
of fruit and meadow land
where the parterre now is. Not
only does the wide canal run
through the middle, but every
preau with its great trees is sur-
rounded by a little canal as well.
On the other side of the
pond Francis made the so-
called Jardin des Pins, probably
a kind of winter garden, planted
for the most part with fir-trees,
between which Du Cerceau's
engraving shows formal beds
evidently laid out in box, and
perhaps containing useful vege-
tables. Here too there was a
wide canal along the facade
of the castle, the Gallery of
Ulysses. At the end of the gallery a grotto under the corner pavilion completed this
beautiful garden picture: great arches of rustica, flanked by giants (Fig. 318), reminding
one of Giulio Romano's work at Palazzo del Te, lead to the inner part, which is adorned
with water-fowl and sea-beasts, and has running fountains. There is a little nymphseum
in front forming a court with pleasant walls and fountains, overarched with green.
This place is now the only part of the garden of Francis I., which (pretty well pre-
served) shows what it was before it was changed into an English park. But the real flower-
garden was on the north of the castle, inside the canal. This little garden, cut up into four
squares with wooden pillars marking them off, and laid out with box, flowers, and earth
of various colours, contained as its finest ornament and central point the so-called Diana
of Versailles. Apparently Francis put up other statues as well. It is an odd thing that a
pergola which ought to give a sort of connection between the garden and the informal
facade is, according to the drawing, not in the same line with the garden.
By permission of Mr. P. D. Hepworth
FIG. 318. FONTAINEBLEAU—GROTTE DES PINS