DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0225
The French Garden in European Countries
205
at the harbour help the disembarking and landing from the royal ships. On both sides
of the canal there is a walk with fountains which throw silver showers up and down upon
the dark tall firs, and various masks spurt their waters into the canal. There is a cheerful
open garden beside the cascade, and the terrace steps on either side are decorated with
dwarf trees, while on the flat there is always a basin with beds of flowers. Above, in front
of the castle, there is an incomparable view, for right over the lower garden and the water's
edge, which so soon was covered with fine country houses and gardens following the king's
example, the eye sweeps right over the sea to the town with its golden domes, while far
away on the right the Finnish coast appears. Behind the castle lies the upper garden
(Fig. 523) with its fountains and the Neptune in the middle; here all travellers praise the
lovely clear waters that the hills of Peterhof pour out m profusion. Hence proceeded wide
star-shaped avenues, passing through the park above, and meeting at one point on the
hill, whence it is possible to see all the views skilfully and pleasingly combined.
The French artists, using the nature of the ground, cleverly created a wonderful
picture. This garden is clearly a symbol of all Petersburg culture, which at that time was
the scion of a French stock. For western eyes there was too much gold and glitter and too
many colours used in other castles as well as in this one, in accordance with the Russian
taste and feeling. There is a story that the French ambassador, when he first saw Karskoje-
Selo, Queen Catherine's castle, exclaimed that there was nothing wanting but a case to
protect this jewel in bad weather. The short reign of the French garden came to an end
with this castle. Catherine was so modern a ruler that she laid out her garden m the new
English style, the first one in Russia, and greatly admired.
In all these countries of Northern Europe the art of gardening reached its highest
point in the eighteenth century. We have not found any fine display of new ideas, but
French art absorbed and embraced within its wide boundaries much of the individual
peculiarities of the different countries, and their various changes in taste during these
hundred years. Variety was the charmed word that led them to their pinnacle. All the
same, this variety had to be united with a definite and abiding form m the mam lines.
We have seen as we went along how economic and political conditions prepared the soil
for garden development in the course of this century.
Italy
We do not find the southern countries, especially Italy, so much inclined to adopt a
thoroughgoing change as Russia was. Italy had no doubt given up the leadership to France
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was fully conscious of that country's
superiority. So the art of Le Notre was supposed to have done the impossible, and villas
like Ludovisi and Albani were quoted as works of his, whereas one was much before his
time and the other was made after his death. But this want of precise knowledge at Rome
was the best possible proof that the spirit of Le Notre and his northern feeling for style
had not vanished from Roman minds. Only thus could it have been possible for such a
really Roman villa to be created as the Villa Albani so late as the year 1740. Certain
concessions made by the cardinal to the taste that was then the fashion penetrated
(somewhat timidly and, so to speak, unintelligently) into nooks and corners. The
205
at the harbour help the disembarking and landing from the royal ships. On both sides
of the canal there is a walk with fountains which throw silver showers up and down upon
the dark tall firs, and various masks spurt their waters into the canal. There is a cheerful
open garden beside the cascade, and the terrace steps on either side are decorated with
dwarf trees, while on the flat there is always a basin with beds of flowers. Above, in front
of the castle, there is an incomparable view, for right over the lower garden and the water's
edge, which so soon was covered with fine country houses and gardens following the king's
example, the eye sweeps right over the sea to the town with its golden domes, while far
away on the right the Finnish coast appears. Behind the castle lies the upper garden
(Fig. 523) with its fountains and the Neptune in the middle; here all travellers praise the
lovely clear waters that the hills of Peterhof pour out m profusion. Hence proceeded wide
star-shaped avenues, passing through the park above, and meeting at one point on the
hill, whence it is possible to see all the views skilfully and pleasingly combined.
The French artists, using the nature of the ground, cleverly created a wonderful
picture. This garden is clearly a symbol of all Petersburg culture, which at that time was
the scion of a French stock. For western eyes there was too much gold and glitter and too
many colours used in other castles as well as in this one, in accordance with the Russian
taste and feeling. There is a story that the French ambassador, when he first saw Karskoje-
Selo, Queen Catherine's castle, exclaimed that there was nothing wanting but a case to
protect this jewel in bad weather. The short reign of the French garden came to an end
with this castle. Catherine was so modern a ruler that she laid out her garden m the new
English style, the first one in Russia, and greatly admired.
In all these countries of Northern Europe the art of gardening reached its highest
point in the eighteenth century. We have not found any fine display of new ideas, but
French art absorbed and embraced within its wide boundaries much of the individual
peculiarities of the different countries, and their various changes in taste during these
hundred years. Variety was the charmed word that led them to their pinnacle. All the
same, this variety had to be united with a definite and abiding form m the mam lines.
We have seen as we went along how economic and political conditions prepared the soil
for garden development in the course of this century.
Italy
We do not find the southern countries, especially Italy, so much inclined to adopt a
thoroughgoing change as Russia was. Italy had no doubt given up the leadership to France
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was fully conscious of that country's
superiority. So the art of Le Notre was supposed to have done the impossible, and villas
like Ludovisi and Albani were quoted as works of his, whereas one was much before his
time and the other was made after his death. But this want of precise knowledge at Rome
was the best possible proof that the spirit of Le Notre and his northern feeling for style
had not vanished from Roman minds. Only thus could it have been possible for such a
really Roman villa to be created as the Villa Albani so late as the year 1740. Certain
concessions made by the cardinal to the taste that was then the fashion penetrated
(somewhat timidly and, so to speak, unintelligently) into nooks and corners. The