The Jardin - Anglais As Public Image of the Self
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Civil Engineering and Architecture 5(4): 125-133, 2017 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050401 The Jardin - Anglais as Public Image of the Self Janet R. White School of Architecture, University of Nevada, USA Copyright©2017 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract At first glance, the jardin-anglais of assigned to the Sublime. 18th-century France appears to be composed of a standard set In the French examples built during the reign of Louis of pieces. A closer examination of specific gardens, however, XVI (1774-1792), more so than in the original English reveals that elements were often chosen in order to “fit” the versions, certain elements consistently appear: there are the garden to the patron. These choices were intended to make Beautiful round temple and theater; the Sublime grotto, tomb each garden into a kind of portrait of its owner, an important and Gothic ruin; the Exotic pavilion; the Rustic ferme orneé means of projection of self to others. Three gardens are and hermitage. A closer examination of the details of specific examined here: Marie Antoinette’s at the Petit Trianon at gardens, however, reveals that choices of elements and Versailles; the Desert d’ Ermenonville, the garden of the adaptations of the standard forms were often made in order to Marquis de Girardin; and Monsieur de Monville’s Desert de “fit” the garden to the patron or creator and create an Retz. A “close reading” of features of each reveals that each atmosphere specific to that garden. As Jean A. Perkins [2] plays on the standard repertoire to turn the garden into a puts it in The Concept of Self in the French Enlightenment, public self-portrait of its creator as he or she wished to be after 1750 one could look on the self as a “creature of seen. They add up to three very different public images of the sentiment” but also as “an active member of society,” and self-projected by three gardens with very different in the latter case “it is the means by which one projects atmospheres. The new innate self of the second half of the one’s self-image to others that are important”. This paper eighteenth century was to be “cultivated by a spontaneous argues that these choices among and adaptations of the relation to nature” [1]. It is perhaps not surprising then to find standard elements were intended to make each garden into a nature as expressed in the garden being in turn made into the kind of portrait of its owner, an important means of public means of projecting the self to others. projection of self-image to others. Like the work of Stephen Bending [3], it is based on the assumption that Keywords Eighteenth-century, Jardin - Anglais, French “the shaping of physical space is the shaping also of Gardens identity, and that gardens are microcosms” which not only, in Bending’s words, are “speaking of and reacting to a world beyond themselves” but, I would add, are speaking to that world. 1 . Introduction Three gardens outside Paris and dating from the decades before the Revolution will be examined in detail: Marie At first glance, the jardin-anglais of 18th-century France Antoinette’s garden at the Petit Trianon at Versailles, appears to be composed of a standard set of pieces. It consists begun in 1774; the Desert d’Ermenonville, which is the of a series of picturesque scenes upon which the visitor garden of the Marquis de Girardin and was begun soon comes as he or she moves around the garden or estate. These after he inherited the estate in 1763; and Monsieur de scenes, accented by architectural follies, are intended to Monville’s Desert de Retz, for which construction of the first evoke an emotional response in the viewer, for the viewer’s folly began in 1777. A “close reading” of the follies and entertainment. By the mid-18th century, the scorn of the features of each garden reveals that each plays on the rational 17th century towards the passions was replaced “by standard repertoire to turn the garden into a public an exaltation of strong emotions” [2] and the self-portrait of its creator as he or she wished to be seen. jardin-anglais fed this taste. A good garden design would provide variety, with elements evoking Edmund Burke’s Beautiful and Sublime emotions, a sense of the Exotic 2. Marie Antoinette’s Garden at the and the more familiar Rustic. Classical architecture and Petit Trianon, Versailles still water were associated with the Beautiful, while Gothic architecture and the wilder manifestations of Nature were The original plan of the Queen’s garden at Versailles was 126 The Jardin - Anglais as Public Image of the Self developed by the Comte de Caraman, an amateur as the artistic placement of rocks on the Temple of the Sybil gardener, in 1774, but many hands had input into the design, at Tivoli. The difference lies in the dedications, and here including Richard Mique, the Queen’s architect, who the Temple, one of the first elements of the garden and prepared a new plan in 1777, (Figure 1) and the painter placed axially before the Trianon’s windows where the Hubert Robert, whom the Queen consulted on issues such Queen could see it from her bedroom, is dedicated to Love. Dams and Zega, p. 113 Figure 1. Plan of Marie Antoinette’s garden at Versailles Civil Engineering and Architecture 5(4): 125-133 127 With any design there is always the question of the degree melancholy and solitude did not fit the image the Queen of involvement of the patron in design decisions. We have wanted to project. evidence that the Queen was very personally involved in the When the Sublime does appear, it is tamed by pairing with design of her new garden. The designs of the follies were the Beautiful; the main grotto, the Rocher du Belvedere, sits modified many times, and it was the Queen who chose to next to and forms the approach to the elegant music pavilion, eliminate some of those proposed [4]. For the various the Belvedere itself (Figure 3).There was also a second th elements of the design, the designers made very precise grotto described as “this mysterious retreat” [6] by a 19 models and presented them to her [4]. Five models of the century visitor that is so dark that the eyes “needed a certain Belvedere were shown to the Queen before she approved one time to discern objects within.” It contains a bed covered in [5], seven models were made of the Grotto designs for her to moss that “invites one to repose” and from which one can choose among [6] and she looked at fourteen versions of the conveniently see through a crevasse anyone who is Rocher before selecting the final design [4]. When approaching. It is as if the grotto were designed for flirtations commissioned to design a permanent theater Mique and stolen kisses – a narrow staircase led out the back and permitted, says de Nolhac, “the indiscrete to steal away” [4]. presented an elaborate model in gilded wax with blue silk Even the Sublime is turned to the service of Love. and velvet curtains illuminated by twenty-four little lamps, The Exotic is represented by stylish Chinoiserie: a while the decorators presented motifs in clay or plaster. We Chinese room in the upper floor of the Queen’s House at the are told by de Nolhac [4] that the Queen examined them and Hameau and a Chinese carousel on which a game could be decided the least details of the theater’s decor. This close played, of tilting at the ring. This was a game which required attention was in the service of an image – an image of Marie display of grace and dexterity, again emphasizing youth and Antoinette as the young, gay (in the old sense), and stylish playfulness. Queen of Love. The details of the garden support this position. Arizzoli-Clementel, Pierre. Views and Plans of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Alain de Gourcuff Editeur, Paris, 1998, p. 90 Figure 2. Marie Antoinette’s Temple of Love The Beautiful is well represented in the Queen’s garden by the Temple of Love, (Figure 2) inaugurated in September 1778, and the Belvedere, completed in 1781. All three of the gardens discussed here have a round tholos temple modeled The motifs used in the decoration of the Belvedere’s walls further support the notion that the Queen wanted her garden to project a image of a joyous, playful queen of love. They include entertaining motifs such as a monkey trying to get fish out of a crystal vase and emblems of love, like flying doves and hearts pierced by arrows. The tone everywhere is light and joyful. In Marie Antoinette’s garden we find no ruined Gothic, no tomb designed to evoke Sublime melancholy. Photo by author The original design had proposed a ruined temple on a big Figure 3. The Belvedere rock surrounded by debris supposedly fallen from its facades, The Rustic is in full bloom here with the famous Hameau, but the Queen rejected it. A hermitage likewise was proposed begun in 1783. It was Hubert Robert who first formulated the and rejected [4]. Their dark implications of Sublime 128 The Jardin - Anglais as Public Image of the Self idea and Richard Mique who did the design and prepared the Queen took an interest in the work and wanted to send the models for the Queen’s approval.