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                                              André Le Nôtre II
  Le Notre's garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte
Le Nôtre's garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte
 

The shrubs, flowers and trees were "pruned to follow geometric shapes and flowers were trimmed to provide lines or sections of color...outlines of ponds were carried out from designs first drawn on paper with a ruler and compass." 

In all of Le Nôtre's plans he incorporated and focused on statues and architectural devices to create his 'classical beauty' with nature. These mathematical and geometric designs that Le Nôtre designed stemmed from his academic training and the interest of the French Academies emphasis on line as the key element to an artistic career. He incorporates the use of line into every aspect of his planning and relies heavily on mathematical proportions and line to create his desired effect of infinite space.

Now we will look at how Le Nôtre applied and adapted his standard plan to each of the above-mentioned châteaux. André Le Nôtre's first major work, was

Château Vaux-le-Vicomte, was in collaboration with Louis le Vau and Charles Le Brun.  It shows his excellent skills as a classical landscape designer. The geographical landscape of Vaux-le-Vicomte is flat with expansive green fields. To over come the flatness of the geographical site, Le Nôtre chose to create optical illusions to create the Ideal landscape.  The flat fields were geometricized to fit into the landscape; the shrubs trimmed and planted in patterns to show the "rescued landscape from nature's wild". The actual geometric layout of the gardens shows Le Nôtre's goal of harmony, clarity and balance. He strived very hard to balance the gardens to fit the harmony and grandeur of the château. Le Nôtre employed optical illusions to make the vast gardens actually seem smaller and more inviting them they were. He encouraged visitors to explore and veer off of the main path by having "openings and exits from one garden to the next..."  A characteristic of Le Nôtre's garden designs was the leveled terraces. 
 

  Garden design for Vaux-le-Vicomte   Photo of Vaux-le-Vicomte  
  Garden design for Vaux-le-Vicomte        Photo of Vaux-le-Vicomte  


These terraces created the optical illusion that the château was not diminishing in size, even though the distance between viewer and château was growing, but that it remained the main focus of the grand estate. The optical illusions used at Vaux-le-Vicomte were not only to enhance the beauty of the garden and château, but were also created for practical endeavors; the terraces were gradually "sloped for the sake of drainage though they appeared to be level".

An image of a terrace at the Vaux-le-Vicomte chateau  

An image of a terrace at Vaux-le-Vicomte château.

One can see the optical illusion of the landscape all being at one level. In the distance one can see the grotto, but hidden from the eye is the canal.

               
Incorporated into the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Nôtre situated a grotto and canal as the final climax of the garden. The grotto was the balance to the château, it could be seen from anywhere in the garden (I will refer to it as a park from now on), it was a beckoning point for exploration. The grotto's large niches were filled with monumental reclining classical sculptures. The canal and cascades could not be seen from the château, but could be heard throughout the garden, this was an encouraging device for the walker to keep exploring the gardens until they reached the grand finale. From the terrace above the grotto, as well as from the château's terrace, the whole park could be seen and the order and harmony of the design could be appreciated. The carefully sculpted parterre beds, pools and avenues showed Le Nôtre's control over nature and the geometric design that he had created. Every aspect of the park was perfect and in complete harmony with every other element. Nothing was over shadowed by another, but complemented one another.


                                                                      
 Continued >>>


 
                               View the Gardens of Versailles        View the Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomté
 
 
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 © Copyright 1999 - 2016 by Sharon Atchley.  All rights reserved.  Updated:  05/06/2016