Vaux-le-Vicomte | The Garden of Perspective

Vaux-le-Vicomte The Garden of Perspective

Contents Abstract

page 2

Introduction

page 3

The Life of Le NĂ´tre

page 3

Vaux-le-Vicomte: A Brief History

page 5

An Introduction to the Garden

page 5

Perspective in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

page 7

A Contextual Background

page 7

Garden Treatises

page 9

Anamorphosis

page 11

Vaux-le-Vicomte in Detail

page 13

After Vaux-le-Vicomte

page 27

Versailles

page 27

The National Mall, Washington

page 29

Contemporary Application of Anamorphosis: Three Case Studies

page 31

Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces by Dan Graham

page 31

National September 11 Memorial, New York

page 33

Across the Buildings by Felice Varini

page 35

Conclusion

page 37

References

page 39

Bibliography

page 41

Appendix and Image Credits

page 43

Acknowledgements

page 46

Abstract The numerous superlatives associated with André Le Nôtre’s name include; the Father of French Gardens1, the greatest French landscape designer2 and the king of gardeners3. It is unsurprising then, that Le Nôtre was born in to a family of gardeners. The landscape architect of gardens and parks such as at Versailles, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud and Saint-Germain, Le Nôtre left an indelible mark on the French national consciousness due to his body of work representing the height of the French formal garden style.

Situated 32 miles to the South East of Paris, the garden of Vaux-le-Vicomte is renowned for its grand axis reaching toward the horizon. Completed in 1661 and a prelude to Versailles, Vaux was Le Nôtre’s first major garden design.

Despite being 3600 feet in length, the garden appears human in scale. This human scale is achieved via a succession of terraces where the garden is broken down and experienced kinetically rather than statically. Unlike Versailles, the garden never exceeds 450 feet in width so the realms are always within our field of vision.

On the 400th anniversary of his birth, it seems appropriate to reconsider the theories and ideals behind one of André Le Nôtre’s key landscape masterpieces. This paper seeks to address and explore the exploitation of perspective techniques in the seventeenth century as well as Le Nôtre’s application and use of optics in the garden of Vaux-leVicomte. It will be fascinating to discover if a contemporary designer may relate to these theories centuries after their initial application. After exploring historical context and the perambulatory experience of the garden itself, four contemporary case studies shall be explored with relation to one of Le Nôtre’s key perspective techniques.

Figure 1 Lion Statuary at the bottom of the Grotto Steps, Vaux-le-Vicomte

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Introduction

The Life of Le Nôtre By the time of his birth on 12 March 1613, André Le Nôtre’s family had been in charge of the Tuileries Garden in central Paris since 1572. The family lived in a house within the park and hence Le Nôtre spent his childhood surrounded by horticultural influences; swiftly acquiring both practical and theoretical knowledge.

Upon reaching the age of 16, Le Nôtre studied painting at the Louvre under Simon Vouet. During the six years spent at the institution, he met the painter Charles Le Brun, the future First Painter to Louis XIV, with whom he was to work on numerous projects. Whilst in this period of study, Le Nôtre also forged ties with scholars from the Academy of Sciences as well as Minim monks such as Jean-Francois Nicéron who were knowledgeable in optical geometry.

The study of traditional landscape painting undoubtedly contributed to the success of Le Nôtre’s gardens. In particular, the designer admired the way Claude Lorraine and Poussin rendered sky and space with light transfusing the scenery, clarity of intention and absence of crowding. Many of his gardens were conceived as a painter composes a picture, except that Le Nôtre’s compositions were to be viewed from several approaches.

Figure 2 Landscape with Cephalus and Procris reunited by Diana (1645) by Claude Lorrain

Figure 4 Portrait of André Le Nôtre by Antoine Masson

Figure 3 Landscape with Polyphemus (1648) by Nicolas Poussin 3

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Vaux-le-Vicomte: A Brief History

An Introduction to the Garden

Vaux-le-Vicomte was Le Nôtre’s first major garden design to be created on entirely virgin territory unencumbered by existing gardens or buildings. Despite the design freedom presented, the topography required movement of waterways and extensive levelling of slopes.

At Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Nôtre envisaged a “single composition”5 embracing both the château and landscape.

From the château to the forest, the garden measures 3600 feet but its width never exceeds 450 feet. From the steps in front of the château it is difficult to comprehend the garden’s full extent as the major geometries of the design are scaled to one another rather than relating to dimensions familiar to man. The dimensions of Vaux are designed so that the whole garden lies within the human field of vision whereas at Versailles the vast scale implies a disproportion to our visual range.

Nicolas Fouquet viewed his commissioned masterpiece as a stage for living. In 1661, just five years after inception, the gardens were complete and, on the evening of August 17th of that year, the Superintendent of Finances hosted a grand party in honour of Louis XIV. After attending the fete, the young King Louis XIV was enraged that one of his ministers would live in greater splendour than he and 3 weeks later on September 5th, Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life.

Following Fouquet’s arrest, King Louis XIV employed Le Nôtre along with the painter Charles Le Brun and the architect Louis Le Vau (all of whom had worked on Vaux-le-Vicomte) to design Europe’s ‘most lavish palace’ and ‘the most extensive gardens the Western world has ever seen’4 at Versailles.

Le Nôtre’s objective was to transform the great stretch into a more human scale via a succession of terraces.

These terraces of different heights mean visitors discover the garden in stages; a garden of dynamic views rather than static.

To ensure the garden looks the same all year round, Le Nôtre focussed on planting non seasonal shrubs; boxwoods, hornbeams and evergreens. The garden’s only movement is provided by fountains, the slow changing of shadows cast on the gravelled walks and by clouds moving across the vast expanse of sky over the flatly planted terraces. This notion references the numerous landscape paintings whose compositions Le Nôtre studied and have here been translated to three dimensional realised form.

Though the garden’s length is immense, it remains inclusive as it rarely acknowledges the scenery outside the boundaries. This practice was based on the principle of keeping the garden from merging into the countryside.

It also gave the owner the feeling, when he walked on his terraces, that he was master of all the land he could see. A further sense of seclusion is achieved through the placement of the entire garden within a dense area of trees, a veritable void in surrounding forest landscape. Planted in the seventeenth century, this dense forest forms a quasinatural boundary around the park’s edges and serves as an unbridled backdrop to the formal garden.

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Figure 5 View of the garden from the château

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Perspective in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

A Contextual Background The discovery of the rules of linear perspective was to have a revolutionary effect upon theatre, painting and architectural theories, including garden design.

Commissioned in 1504 by Pope Julius II, Bramante’s Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican for example employs a key principle of theatrical perspective by establishing a fixed point of view where all perspective lines in the garden converge.

In this case the focal point is the exedra and the singular point of view is found to be from a window of the third floor of the Vatican palace not within the Cortile itself. This point of view references the ducal box found in a Renaissance theatre.

It is imperative to realise that until Bramante’s design, Renaissance courtyards existed around a focal point at the centre of the composition within the confines of four walls. In order to comprehend a sense of aesthetic unity, the composition of the Belvedere was planned along a central axis forcing observation of the space from south to north.

Indeed, after this development in garden history, the outdoors became a conscious part of architectural planning.

Moreover, in 1641 exactly 20 years before Vauxle-Vicomte was unveiled, a new production of the play Mirame heralded an important development in the history of French stage. For the first time a Parisian audience saw a stage backdrop or curtain actually painted in perspective to create an illusion of space within the confines of the stage itself.

Figure 7 Cortile del Belvedere by Etienne du P erac

Figure 8 View towards the exedra at Cortile del Belvedere, Rome

Figure 6 Inaugural of the Salle du Palais-Cardinal.

Decor of Mirame (1641) by Stefano della Bella 7

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Garden Treatises The majority of garden treatises written during the seventeenth century express a clear view that the art of landscape architecture requires knowledge of scale, échelle6, in order to transfer geometric figures to the surface of the earth at a correct size. The process is called pourtraiture7; on the one hand an illustration of the client and on the other, a portrayal of the inner geometric framework of the earth as a drawing upon its surface.

Seventeenth century perspective methods are based on an embodied viewer whose eye constitutes the centre of the perspective construction. Indeed because geometry was a scientia universalis (universal science) in the seventeenth century, an observer in geometrized spaces such as the camera obscura, gardens and baroque cities could identify with God’s geometric creative will and feel closer to his worldly creations.

“Far from being easy to deceive, sight is hard to cheat. Judgement is implicit in vision, but judgement of comparabilities, equalities, and symmetries, not of numbers hidden in measurements.”14

In book 1 of Vitruvius’s Ten Books (1567), Vitruvius mentions that the architect must know the science of optics to understand the light of the heavenly bodies and how it affects buildings. Indeed Daniele Barbaro a translator of Vitruvius’ work from Northern Italy elaborating that the study of optics includes the properties of natural light “straight, reflected and refracted” and its benefits for “the sight and soul of mortals” such as the effects of distance, foreshortening and relief of objects on flat surfaces.8 An awareness of how light behaves with regards to angle of incidence and reflection facilitated Le Nôtre’s use of pools as mirrors and allowed him to control which aspects of landscape were reflected and from which exact points these reflections could be appreciated from.

In 1600, Oliver de Serre’s Théâtre d’Agriculture noted that rows of trees and plants must have greater space “par la raison de perspective”9 if they were to be seen from a distance rather than at close range. He also expressed a need to regularly increase the spaces between plant lines in a parterre to prevent the foreshortening due to perspective from confusing the pattern.

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Soloman de Caus (1615) and Louis Savot (1624) also recalled the need for an overlooking view from some terrace in order to offset the flatness (planure) of a garden to “better grasp the aspect of the parterres” and “see more distinctly when walking the beauty of the parterres.”10 The year 1638 saw Jean François Nicéron publish La Perspective Curieuse. It is known that Le Nôtre studied this treatise at length during his training at the studio of Simon Vouet. The publication discussed the practical applications of perspective, catoptrics, and dioptrics with references to Descartes’s derivation of the law of refraction.

Indeed, Vouet himself produced such works as Eight Satyrs Admiring the Anamorphosis of an Elephant (1625) which Le Nôtre would have been aware of.

In 1652, André Mollet formulated a rectangular plan divided by allées in a regular way that gave the parts a hierarchy of importance. Although there were strict rules governing the layout of the garden “the parterres furthest from site must be given greater volume than those which are closer”11, variety was allowed in garden design through the planting and arrangement of the individual parterres.

Rather than a preoccupation with perspective like the aforementioned, Claude Perrault’s interest lay within the realms of visual adjustment; advising architects to compensate for the defects of vision by making more distant things larger than ones close by. Perhaps influenced by the establishment of Vaux-le-Vicomte, in A Treatise of the Five Orders (1683) Perrault claimed that vision does not distort things; it relates them to one another so advised making more distant entities larger to compensate for the defects of vision.

“Far from being easy to deceive, sight is hard to cheat.

Judgement is implicit in vision, but judgement of comparabilities, equalities, and symmetries, not of numbers hidden in measurements.” 12

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Although Le Nôtre benefited from the written treatises, he also sought to build upon their knowledge. It is difficult to pinpoint which theoretical works Le Nôtre benefitted from directly as, the landscape architect preferred to express himself through his landscapes, rather than written word. Designed at a pivotal moment for science, French formal gardens celebrate a shift from an unknown world to an infinite universe.

Anamorphosis The term anamorphosis derives from the Greek verb meaning “to transform.”13 Typically, an anamorphic image transforms visible objects so that they are able to recover correct proportions when viewed from a particular vantage point.A “Anamorphosis reveals the potential discontinuity between an object present to perception and its visual appearance.”14 Painted in 1533, The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein attracted crowds of visitors in Paris in 1653. Upon viewing the image from a certain position to the left of the painting, an anamorphically stretched skull appears which had been unrecognisable when observed from the centre.

The ephemeral skull symbolises mortality and serves as a stark reminder that “salvation lies through God, Christ and the afterlife.”15 A painting employing anamorphosis is usually best viewed from fixed points; one is not obliged to occupy just one point thereby implying an emancipation from the usually static process of viewing two dimensional art.

When anamorphic techniques are applied to garden design it is interesting how space becomes hierarchical; a three dimensional representation of perspective designed to be occupied and appreciated from specified positions. A designed experience rather than one of discovery.

Figure 9 The Ambassadors (1533) by Hans Holbein the Younger

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Figure 10 Anamorphic Skull (detail) from The Ambassadors (1533) by Hans Holbein the Younger

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Vaux-le-Vicomte in Detail

In a lecture entitled Geometries of Power. Technology, Economy, and Territory in 17th-Century French Landscape, Dr Georges Farhat, associate professor at the University of Toronto poses the question (at 20:21 minutes) ‘What is perspective?’ and answers that it is a system of representation with all four of the following16: • • •

A vanishing point A viewpoint All parallel lines converging at the vanishing point which is supposed mathematically to be situated at an infinite distance

The manipulation of perspective is particularly notable at Vaux-le-Vicomte. A view from the platform of the house seems to reveal the garden in its entirety. Only by travelling through the grounds does one find the reality; a series of terraces so well integrated that the break from one to the next is imperceptible. From the house, the canal is not seen and the vista seems to suggest a progression directly toward the statue of Hercules across a flat plane.

The use of perspective not only allows construction of spatial devices but also a means of unifying vast areas of land via use of an axis to amalgamate a mosaic of territories.

Indeed from the steps of the château it is almost impossible to believe the statue of Hercules is almost half a mile away (800m).

Upon travelling down the central axis, disymmetries and different levels reveal themselves. The vast space reveals itself as much larger than it initially appeared and the pool which appeared circular when viewed from the château becomes oval and one must walk around it. Once the spectator has moved around the oval pool, a transversal canal becomes apparent, previously hidden from the terrace viewpoint.

Statue of Hercules (Hercule)

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The Shower Pool The Grottos (Bassin de la Gerbe) (Les Grottes)

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Grand Canal (Canal de la Poële)

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Waterfalls (Cascades)

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Figure 11 The lines of the garden converging at the vanishing point (Statue of Hercules) at the horizon

Figure 12 Long Section indicating view towards the Statue of Hercules from the château. The shallow relief of the topography is clear when the garden is viewed in sectional form. The top of the amphitheatre (highest point) is only fifteen metres above the level of the grand canal (lowest point).

Square Mirror (Mirroir Carré)

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Little Canals (Petits Canaux)

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Round Pool (Rond D’eau)

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Château

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Entrance (Grande Grille)

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Distance (m)

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As the spectator continues down the central axis the pool originally viewed as rectangular reveals itself to be square and appears poised on the edge of the grotto; undoubtedly the centrepiece of the scheme. After advancing further into the garden, it becomes apparent that the grotto does not feed the square pool, it is in fact lower and further back away from the pool.B In the void that opens beneath one’s feet an immense canal appears which is perpendicular to the primary axis. This canal constitutes a second major transverse axis; a ribbon of water half a mile in length stretching in a straight line until visually lost at both ends in dark green shadows of dense forest. Two glimpses outside the realms of the garden present themselves at either end of this canal; the previously definite edge is broken through to invade nature.

Having passed the square pool, if the viewer turns back to look at the château they discover the entire building reflected on the surface, despite the distance of more than 400 metres. To achieve this effect, Le Nôtre has applied Descartes Law where the ‘angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.’17 In addition, a further illusion exists where all four pools, the oval, pair of quatre foil basins, and square pools, appear to be of equal weight. However in reality, the square pool’s surface is eight times greater than the oval pool and they are 720 feet apart. It is apparent when viewing the design in plan form that the pools increase in size the further away from the château they are thereby presenting an illusion of a promenade of short distance; a decelerated or forced perspective that is ‘slowed down’ which has the effect of the pools seeming closer to the viewer than they are in reality. The technique serves to offset the apparent reduction in the size of distant parts: the further the shapes, the more they need to be elongated and widened.

As mentioned earlier in this assignment; when viewing the garden from the château the plane seems to progress horizontally the vanishing point. On approaching the statue of Hercules, one realises that the large lawn towards Hercules is steeply sloping. According to Allen Weiss, in Mirrors of Infinity, this optical effect is a result of the use of the tenth theorem of Euclid’s Optics which asserts that “the most distant parts of planes situated below the eye appear to be the most elevated.”18 On reaching the statue of Hercules, the garden is viewed from the initial viewpoint’s vanishing point, thus completing the circuit as intended

by Le Nôtre. A further surprise is revealed where one finds the statue is actually six metres in height rather than life size as previously thought when approaching from before the canal. This imposing presence reinforces an awareness of scale and serves as an illusion that the garden is less vast than the reality.

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Figure 13 View from the chateau steps indicating the four pools which appear to be equally balanced in size.

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Figure 14 Aerial View indicating true proportions of the four pools seen in figure x. In plan view it becomes clear that the Rond D’Eau is almost an eight of the area of the Mirroir D’Eau.

Figure 15 The Grand Canal, perpendicular to the central axis, appears as if from nowhere. Both the grand canal and the transverse canal contribute to the overall aesthetic appeal of the composition.

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d in reflecte Château

au roir D’E the Mir

Square Mirror (Mirroir D’Eau) 800

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Château Steps (Perron) 400

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Water Mirror (Mirroir D’Eau) 800

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Château image is flipp

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ed in in

the Mir roir D’E au

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Figure 16 At the end of the Mirroir D’Eau one can see the château’s reflection despite a distance of more than 400 metres

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Figure 17 Reflection studies

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Square Mirror (Mirroir Carré)

The Grottos (Les Grottes) 800

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Château Steps (Perron) 400

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It is interesting to consider the conceptual sentiment of view point and vanishing point being reversible.

By placing the statue of Hercules at the garden’s vanishing point, infinity is captured at a known distance. The laws of perspective are momentarily defied as paradoxically, the vanishing point can be defined as subsiding at an infinite distance.

The central axis is no longer the focus when looking back towards the château from the sloping lawn; instead the horizontal terraces dominate with the château appearing on a pedestal of successive terraces. Irregularities of level and diversity of components in the overall composition become instantly discernible and the pools, lawns, steps, ramps and yew trees create a mostly orthogonal composition of

800

Square Mirror (Mirroir Carré) 700

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Distance (m)

Figure 19 Section indicating anamorphosis of the Grottos

Grotto (Les Grottes)

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lines and planes. From the final vista, the view seems also telescopic when considering the original wide angle view from the château steps akin to a panorama.

At Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Nôtre has successfully extended the realms of anamorphosis to landscape architecture, which as previously acknowledged, underwent accelerated development in the seventeenth -century. The anamorphosis creates visual effects which are not inherently encountered in nature whereby the viewer experiences a tension between the natural perspective cues in their peripheral vision and the forced perspective of the formal garden. This implies that the whole garden itself acts as an optical device rather than just utilising optical (or perspective) techniques.

Triton’s Pools (Bassins des Tritons) 400

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Round Pool (Rond D’eau) 200

Château Steps (Perron) 100

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Distance (m) Figure 18 A view from the sloping lawn where the garden becomes discernible

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Figure 20 View towards the grotto (foreground) and statue of Hercules (background)

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Figure 21 View from the western end of the Grand Canal

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Figure 22 View from the eastern end of the Grand Canal

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Figure 23 The Statue of Hercules

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Figure 24 View from the Statue of Hercules where the vanishing point and view point have reversed.

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Figure 25 (opposite) Aerial view of Vaux-le-Vicomte château and grounds

Cour des Bornes

Cour D’Honneur Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

Grande Orangerie Parterre de la Couronne Parterre de Broderie Parterre de Fleurs

The Grottos (Les Grottes) 800

Square Mirror (Mirroir Carré) 700

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Château Steps (Perron) 400

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Grilles D’Eau Rond D’Eau Petits Canaux

Bassins des Tritons

Figure 26 Vaux-le-Vicomte boundary Mirroir D’Eau

Cascades

Canal de la Poêle

Grottes Bassin de la Gerbe

Grotto (Les Grottes) 800

Square Mirror (Mirroir Carré) 700

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Figure 27 Diagram indicating increasing pool size

Triton’s Pools (Bassins des Tritons) 400

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Round Pool (Rond D’eau) 200

Château Steps (Perron) 100

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Distance (m)

Tapis Vert

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Statue d’Hercule

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After Vaux-le-Vicomte

Versailles Almost immediately after Fouquet had been imprisoned in 1661, King Louis XIV commissioned Le Nôtre to commence working on the gardens at Versailles.

Vaux-le-Vicomte was both the “model and nemesis”19 for the King and indeed many similarities can be detected between both schemes such as symmetry, use of axes extending to the horizon and unification of house and garden. The key difference lies in the monumental scale of Versailles’ garden footprint. Whereas at Vaux, the garden never exceeds our field of vision, the axes of Versailles were extended to incorporate more land into the garden grid thus entering realms “disproportionate”20 to human vision. The sense of enclosure(provided by the surrounding woodland) previously seen at Vaux has been lost.

Figure 28 Plan of Versailles

Figure 29 The vast gardens of Versailles

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The National Mall, Washington In 1791, more than a century after the completion of Vaux-le-Vicomte, President George Washington commissioned Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design a new capital city for America. L’Enfant’s plan specified a grid with streets either running from east to west or north to south.

Diagonal avenues, later named after the states of the Union, crossed the grid intersecting with the orthogonal streets at circular and rectangular plazas that serve to honour notable Americans and provide public space. A garden lined “grand avenue” was also envisioned with a formal composition evocative of Le Nôtre’s axial masterpieces. The avenue was stipulated to be 400 feet wide and it is pertinent that the width of Vaux-le-Vicomte’s promenade never exceeds 450 feet at any point. With a green carpet down the centre which is bordered by narrow roadways flanked with elm trees the likenesses to Vaux (as conceded by L’Enfant himself) are unmistakeable.

When finally realised in 1901 by the McMillan Commission, the avenue was reduced to 300 feet. It is interesting comparing certain elements of the Washington plan to Vaux; the United States Capitol is akin to the chateau whilst the obelisk reminds one of the Statue of Hercules.

Another similarity occurs with the mirrored Capitol in the reflecting pool; a device which only enhances further the building’s iconographic status. This pool serves to reflect the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Mall’s trees or the expansive sky depending on one’s vantage point.

Figure 31 View of the Washington Monument and reflecting pool

Figure 30 Plan of the City of Washington (1792) by Pierre Charles L’Enfant

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Contemporary Application of Anamorphosis

Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces by Dan Graham

Aside from its status as precursor to Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte and its use of anamorphosis continues to influence many contemporary architects, landscape architects and artists to this day. Indeed, contemporary designers such as Dan Kiley, Piet Oudolf and Kathryn Gustafson describe “specific ephiphanies”21 that occurred in their work after visiting classic seventeeth century French gardens. Over the following section I shall briefly examine, in chronological order, four case studies before this assignment reaches a conclusion.

As well as drawing inspiration from such diversities as skyscrapers, 18th century English Landscape design, corporate office buildings and follies, Dan Graham’s anamorphic pavilions also source from Baroque gardens.

Graham’s “Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces” enter into a natural dialogue with their surroundings thanks to the glass which sometimes reflects and at others is transparent depending on your physical relationship to it. At 2.4 metres high and 5.5 metres wide, the walls are curved, creating an intimate space in the middle with a narrow opening. When exhibited at the Wanas Park, Sweden, the form was placed right by the lake where the water, trees and white castle, built in the 15th century, were reflected against the glass. In my view, its placement in a park setting is appropriate as despite the numerous plants and trees, parks are manmade and unnatural just as with Graham’s hybrids between sculpture and architecture.

The artist’s work relates heavily to that of Le Nôtre as each composition is precisely designed for specific situations: “People entering or observing them are able to look at these situations and their place within them. People look at nature, at themselves superimposed on it, at others looking at them, at others looking at others looking at them: an endless equivalence directed at the possibility of acute social (self) consciousness.” 22 This exact description could be applied to Vaux-leVicomte and is a perfect indication of how Le Nôtre’s ideals are fully translatable today.

Figure 32 Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000) by Dan Graham

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Figure 33 Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000) by Dan Graham

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At the memorial, as with the gardens of Vaux-leVicomte the creation of a flat plane places an importance and focus upon the three dimensional relief of the landscaped surface as well as commanding the space above it. The absence of space and the absence of those lost that day are experienced through “the voids that will never fill”.25 Poignantly one side of the Grand Mirroir Carré at Vaux is equal to almost 200 feet; the same dimension as the footprint edge of the voids in New York.

“The visible lines that he drew across the land taught me how to begin creating modern landscapes. I admired his strategy-how he used flatness and placed objects such as clipped gumdrop shrubs and sculpture on horizontal planes to express scale.”23

National September 11 Memorial, New York American Landscape Architect Peter Walker, who was responsible for the design of the 911 memorial in conjunction with Michael Arad, wrote about how haunted he was by the void evoked in Le Nôtre’s waterfalls at the far end of Vaux-le-Vicomte’s grand axis and also admitted a fascination with “the work of Le Nôtre on emptiness”.24 This haunting void subsequently inspired the two which exist at the memorial, emphasizing the both literal and metaphorically negative space where the twin towers used to be.

Figure 34 One of the voids at National September 11 Memorial

Figure 35 The Cascades at Vaux-le-Vicomte

In Walker’s book on the Nasher Sculpture Centre Garden, the author states in an interview that “one of the things Le Nôtre and his contemporaries did so well was using sheets of still water to reflect the sky.”26 Indeed, with the memorial design Walker and Arad utilise water to monumental effect where each cascade drops 30ft, before dropping another 30ft down a smaller square hole in the centre. The total length of falling water is nearly a third of a mile.

The following quote echoes Le Nôtre’s sentiments where, as mentioned earlier in the introductory section of this text, the only movement visible across the garden of Vaux-le-Vicomte stems from fountains, the slow changing of shadows cast on the gravelled walks and by clouds moving across the vast expanse of sky over the flatly planted terraces.

“If you only think about landscape architecture in formal terms, you’re missing it. The real key to minimalist landscape architecture is sun and rain. So, what you try to do is make a figure that can perform in many natural conditions. That’s the translation from minimalism into landscape architecture that I was exploring.”27 Walker states that by simplifying objects, viewers are able to become more aware of changes in season as well as movement of the sun. In New York, through physical inhabitation of the memorial’s sculptural form, visitor’s are able to appreciate these nuances to best effect; an experience unattainable through the medium of an image.

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Across the Buildings by Felice Varini For over thirty years, Swiss born Felice Varini has been creating remarkable anamorphic installations around the world. Varini intervenes with space and our perception of built environments by typically utilising architectural and urban spaces as his canvas, such as buildings, walls and streets. The paintings are characterized by one vantage point from which the viewer can see the complete painting (usually a simple geometric shape such as circle, square, line), while from other viewpoints the viewer will see ‘broken’ fragmented shapes. Indeed “it is up to the viewer whether to experience the projected form or to escape from it.”29 For his first major commission in England named “Across the Buildings”, Varini undertook a commission for King’s Cross which saw “a number of enormous geometric shapes overlaid onto the facades of the distinctive heritage buildings on the site”.30 In a video clip discussing the work, Varini deems that rather than creating the piece himself that “the architecture created it, the sun created it, the clouds and it has gone beyond me. I work so things take off by themselves after a while and surpass me.”31

Figure 36 Across the Buildings (2013) by Felice Varini

Figure 37 Detail of Installation

The work presents a dichotomy between the falsehood of images and the truth of perception. The singular spatial viewpoint from which all form was projected has become the source of an infinite number of viewpoints relating to the installation. It is also fascinating to consider the relationship between the immense scale of ‘Across the Buildings’ and the minute vantage point at which they coalesce. Similar to Le Nôtre’s ambition to create a unified space to be appreciated from many angle, Varini is concerned with “what happens outside the vantage point of view.”32

"As in an anamorphosis that is deformed and becomes unrecognizable with distancing of the fixed viewpoint, so in a work by Varini a minimum shift in focus reveals fragmented, discontinuous images, conforming to the enclosure, respecting the quality of the space"28

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Conclusion

Whilst researching for this assignment I have contemplated the relevance of Vaux-le-Vicomte and Le Nôtre’s application of theory with regards to design industries today.

Despite existing in an era of great extravagance, Vaux exhibits qualities that relate to contemporary minimalist ideals. The use of evergreen shrubs and vast planes of still water create a sense of classicism and timelessness that transcends seasons, years, decades and even centuries.

“The viewpoint and the vanishing point are inseparable: there is no viewpoint without vanishing point, and no vanishing point without viewing point. The self-possession of the viewing subject has built into it, therefore, the principle of its own abolition.”33

Horticulture and the science of botany remain significant today, four hundred years after Le Nôtre’s birth.

However, in my opinion, the key difference between now and then lies in the garden’s symbolism. Vaux was intended as a demonstration of wealth and power whereas today’s landscape architecture is no longer preoccupied with monarchic status or conquering nature.

The garden is incredibly successful at breaking down the scale of the vast land so it relates to the scale of a human being. The succession of terraces is psychologically manageable and space is further divided via the central axis into a wealth of outdoor rooms which echo those inside the chateau. Whilst exploring the grounds, one feels as if they are entirely consumed within the design which serves to act as a microcosm of seventeenth century life.

Figure 38 Panoramic view of the garden from the chateau’s dome

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Total Word Count 4771

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Zevi, A., 1991. Felice Varini: artificio antiprospettico. L’architettura p 476.

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Brands, M., 1998. Felice Varini {online}. Paris: Establishment Unknown. Available from: http:// www.varini.org/04tex/texa13.html

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Graham, D., 1997. Dan Graham: Architecture.

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Bouchenot-Dechi, P. and Farhat, G., 2013. André Le Nôtre in Perspective. Connecticut: Yale University Press, p 73. (please see appendix)

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Versailles: Château de Versailles. Available from: http://www.chateauversailles.fr/resources/pdf/fr/ actualites/depliant-lenotre_en.pdf Moore, R., 2011. 9/11 Ground Zero: why has its rebirth turned sour? London: The Guardian.

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40

Bibliography Websites Berger, R. W., 1730. Claude Desgots’ Life of André Le Nôtre: The 1730 text with English Translation and Notes {online}.

London: The Garden History Society. Available from: http:// www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40649456?uid=3738032&ui d=2&uid=4&sid=21103209472387 Bradley, G., Year Unknown. Landscape Design of André Le Nôtre {online}. Colorado, Colorado State University.

Available from: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~bradleyg/lfrance.html Burton, H., 1943. The Optics of Euclid {online}. Ithaca, Cornell University. Available from: http://www.math. cornell.edu/~web1600/Terrell_OpticsOfEuclid.pdf Di Lazzaro, P. and Murra, D., 2013. Figurative Art, Perception and Hidden Images in Inverse Perspective {online}. Rome: ENEA: Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development. Available from: http://www.enea.it/it/ produzione-scientifica/pdf-eai/n.1-2-gennaio-aprile2013/10-inverse-perspective-pdf Don, M., 2013. Monty Don’s French Gardens. Gardens of Power and Passion {online}. London: BBC Two. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014cph7 Farhat, G., 2011. Geometries of Power. Technology, Economy, and Territory in 17th-Century French Landscape {online}.

Zurich: ETH Zürich (Institute of Landscape Architecture).

Available from: http://girot.arch.ethz.ch/old/outputpodcasts-lectures/dr-georges-farhat.htm Hinkley, M., 2009. Professor Philip Steadman and Louise Govier discuss ‘The Ambassadors’ {online}. London: The National Gallery. Available from: http://www. nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-youngerthe-ambassadors

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Hücking, R., 2011. Secret Gardens and Garden Secret {online}. Ipswich: EBSCO Information Services. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com/Legacy/Views/static/html/ Error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer Ladonne, J., 2013. André Le Nôtre: Magnificent Masterpieces of the Gardener's Art {online}. Bath: France Today. Available from: http://www.francetoday.com/articles/2013/09/10/ André_le_notre_magnificent_masterpieces_of_the_ gardener_s_art.html MacFarlane, R., 2013. Revealing Saint Francis {online}.

London: Wellcome Trust. Available from: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/03/item-of-the-month-march-2013revealing-saint-francis/ Rodman, C., 2013. The 9/11 memorial. Understanding Peter Walker's inspiration {online}. Tennessee: Archinect Blog.

Available from: http://archinect.com/cameronrrodman/the9-11-memorial-understanding-peter-walker-s-inspiration Scully, V., 2003. Modern Architecture and Other Essays {online}. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ou4jKeocIiQC&dq=L E+NOTRE+VILLA+D'ESTE&source=gbs_navlinks_s Swaffield, S., 2009. Tracing Change: Patterns in Landscape Architecture {online}. London: Architectural Design. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ ad.979/pdf Veilhan, X., 2009. Veilhan Versailles: the perspective revisited {online}. Paris: Château de Versailles. Available from: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUkUm1Zaws4 Whittle, E., Year Unknown. Vaux-le-Vicomte, Seine-etMarne, France {online}. Available from: http://media.smith. edu/media/ereserves/pdf_files/hillyer/misc_docs/vauxlevicomte.pdf Author Unknown, 2013. André Le Nôtre in Perspectives {online}. Paris: Château de Versailles. Available from: http://

en.chateauversailles.fr/news-/events/exhibitions/André-lenotre-in-perspectives Author Unknown, Year Unknown. Gardens {online}.

Available from: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/ architec/20centuryArch/pages/L/gardens.htm Author Unknown, 2010. Orientation in Two-Dimensional Space {online}. France, Figures Ambigues. Available from: http://figuresambigues.free.fr/ArticlesTheorie/5-ambiguorientations.html#axzz2kvz5ASsG

Hamilton Hazlehurst, F., 1981. Gardens of Illusion: The Genius of André Le Nostre. Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.

Hersey, G. L., 2000. Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Howard Adams, W., 1979. The French Garden 1500-1800.

London: Scolar Press.

Le Dantec, D., 1993. Reading the French Garden: Story and History. Massachusets: MIT Press.

Books Amidon, J. and Walker, P., 2006. Peter Walker and Partners / Nasher Sculpture Center Garden: Source Books in Landscape Architecture (No. 3). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Baubion-Mackler, J. and Scully, V., 1992. French Royal Gardens: Designs of André Le Nôtre. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.

March, L., 1998. Architectonics of Humanism. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc. Moore, C., 1993. The Poetics of Gardens. Massachusets: MIT Press.

Mukerji, C., 1997. Territorial Ambitions and the Gardens of Versailles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bouchenot-Dechi, P. and Farhat, G., 2013. André Le Nôtre in Perspective. Connecticut: Yale University Press.

Pérez-Gómez, A., 2000. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge. New Ed edition. Massachusets: MIT Press.

Evans, R., 2000. The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries. Massachusets: MIT Press.

Temple, N., 2007. Disclosing Horizons. Architecture, Perspective and Redemptive Space. New York: Routledge.

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New York: Chanticleer Press.

Thompson, I.2006. The Sun King’s Garden. London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Gaukroger, S., 2002. Descartes' System of Natural Philosophy.

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Gutheim, F. and Lee, A. J., 2006. Worthy of the Nation: Washington, DC, from L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission. Maryland: John Hopkins University Press

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Appendix

Image Credits

A

Contents

Trees bordering the Grand Canal, Vaux-le-Vicomte. Author’s Own

Figure 1

Lion Statuary at the bottom of the Grotto Steps, Vaux-le-Vicomte. Author’s Own

Figure 2

Landscape with Cephalus and Procris reunited by Diana (1645) by Claude Lorrain The National Gallery: http://www.nation algallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-land scape-with-cephalus-and-procris-reunitedby-diana

B

43

“There are at least two categories of an amorphoses derived from orthogonal grids: straight ones(implying a parallel projection) and divergent ones(centered projection). These categories can in turn be subdivided into at least three types: direct, catoptrics and dioptric. Direct ones can be observed by the naked eye; for catoptrics ones, the deformed or stripped image may be reconstituted in a mirror; for dioptric ones, the use of a telescope is required.

There are also curved anamorphoses involving projection on cylindrical and conical surfaces (convex or concave). They are spatial and entail the deformation of a network of straight lines into another network of curved lines. They can be direct or indirect, with reflections in conical or cylindrical mirrors.”34

Figure 3

Figure 4

If one looks at the pool closely, you will notice there is no reflection of the grotto. From a distance, this is the sole indication that the structure is not immediately in front of the square pool.

Figure 7

Cortile del Belvedere. Wikipedia: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cortile.del. belvedere.1.jpg

Figure 12

Long Section indicating view towards the Statue of Hercules from the château.

Author’s Own.

Figure 8

Cortile del Belvedere. Ching, Y. 2006.

Flickr: http://www.flickr. com/photos/68435535@N02/11420554403/ in/photolist-ipcjWp-9YLy2i-evkYPNipbu83-9sWmqT-evdPGX-evgU5mcdx6Gf-9sZmuS-evdWR2-evh2dYbWaKVD-f4UC19-auh8Zu-grNoAn8HCgDp-8HFpqu-8HFpxW-8HFp9E8uvV2U-8cH6Qa-842EiZ-bWaMWRbWaNZ2-bWaNjD-cdx8EY-9TX7w9aLf1VF-diZiwe-816N94-8ubDjQ8BaBTM-e7oTaJ-85XbAA-frm65n-frAyf3frAvBA-frA995-cXZqnd-d71PGAdReC7o-aturfv-atusx4-ehtPZZ-7YLgvgatx6x1-atx5M5

Figure 13

Castle of Vaux le Vicomte Photographic Walks: http://www.all-freephotos.com/show/showphoto. php?idph=IM0506&lang=en

Figure 14

Aerial View of Vaux-le-Vicomte. Google Earth

Figure 15

The Grand Canal. Sinclair, J., 2011.

Landscape Lover: http://landscapelover. wordpress.com/page/9/

Figure 16

Château and its mirror image. Monceau, B., 2010. Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/60139144@N00/4770365149/in/ photolist-8gxnmZ-eGtNrH-97SK3p97SK8K-97VSmQ-97SJE4-97VSx7-97SJye97SKhB-cBZAbq-amf342-eGzqsAj4NNox-j9a1uw-igA4y4-inZimc-hQPeYViiwaBS-j1KXcQ-eGzTow-iQ8Sfh-iCjr1CeGuPwD-97SKmT-97SJo8-97SKqa97SHug-97VS2o-97SKzX-97SHpX97VRLS-bu5PpC-ajHuYF-eGzk9UeGAAVu-eGsemP-eGAnSU-eGvPPzeGv3jF-hKQXHL-hTRjn3-i5B65deGvePH-hDVJFt-edPcUx-i2BS5b-id9WnYbu5MGN-bGZGEn-8zZ7wN-8zVZEn

Figure 17

Reflection Studies. Author’s Own.

Figure 18

View from the sloping lawn. Photographic Walks: http://www.all-free-photos.com/ show/showphoto.php?idph=IM0497& lang=en

Figure 19

Section indicating anamorphosis of the Grottos. Author’s Own

Landscape with Polyphemus (1648) by Nicolas Poussin. Wiki Paintings: http:// www.wikipaintings.org/en/nicolas-poussin/ landscape-with-polyphemus-1649 André Le Nôtre (date unknown) by Antoine Masson. Versailles Research Centre: http://www.banqueimages.crcv. fr/search.aspx?showtype=single&first=40&t oken=&type=search&searchform=&advanc ed=&sortField=ccRelevance&searchfield1= *&query1=le+notre&searchfield2=&query2 =&searchfield3=&query3=

Figure 5

View of the garden from the château.

Author’s Own

Figure 6

Inaugural of the Salle du PalaisCardinal. Decor of Mirame (1641)

by Stefano della Bella. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inaugural_of_the_ Salle_du_Palais-Cardinal_1641_-_decor_ of_Mirame_-_WD_Howarth_1997_p200. jpg

Figure 9

The Ambassadors (1533) by Hans Holbein the Younger. The National Gallery: http:// www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassa dors

Figure 10

Anamorphic Skull (detail) from The Ambassadors (1533) by Hans Holbein the Younger. Wikipedia: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holbein_Skull. jpg

Figure 11

The lines of the garden converging at the vanishing point (Statue of Hercules) on the horizon. Kesmev, G. 2013. Cartes France: http://www.cartesfrance.fr/cartefrance-ville/77410_Saint-Germain-Laxis. html Please note white lines overlaid by author to create diagram for the purpose of this paper.

44

Figure 20

Figure 21 Figure 22

View from the western end of the Grand Canal. Author’s Own. View from the eastern end of the Grand Canal. Author’s Own.

Figure 23

The statue of Hercules. Rieke, J. 2010.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ jonathanrieke/4900276062/

Figure 24

View from the Statue of Hercules. VauxleVicomte: http://www.vaux-le-vicomte. com/en/

Figure 25

Aerial view of Vaux-le-Vicomte château and grounds. Google Earth.

Figure 26

Vaux-le-Vicomte boundary. Google Images.

Please note white line overlaid by author to create diagram for the purpose of this paper.

Figure 27

45

View towards the grotto (foreground) and statue of Hercules (background).

Shankland, S., 2012. André Le Nôtre Official Website: http://andrelenotre. com/2012/07/22/statue-dhercule-vaux-levicomte-vue-eloignee/

Diagram indicating increasing pool size.

Author’s Own

Figure 28

Plan of Versailles. Hamilton Hazlehurst, F., 1981. Gardens of Illusion: The Genius of André Le Nostre. Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.

Figure 29

The vast gardens of Versailles.

Illustrator and Year Unknown. Study Blue: http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws. com/813/flashcards/94813/jpg/ versailles1306369723027.jpg

Figure 30

Figure 31

Figure 32

Plan of the City of Washington (1792) by Pierre Charles L’Enfant. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:L%27Enfant_plan.jpg Washington Monument view from Lincoln Memorial. Author Unknown: 2008.

Wikimedia Commons: http://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_Mon ument_view_from_Lincoln_Memorial.JPG Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000)

by Dan Graham. Arc Space: http://www. arcspace.com/travel/blog-the-waanas-foun dation/

Figure 33

Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000)

by Dan Graham. Avasan, 2008. Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avas an/2493851495/

Figure 34

One of the voids at National September 11 Memorial. Travels Worlds: http://www. travelsworlds.com/photos-tour-the-beauti ful-national-911-memorial-in-nyc.html

Figure 35

The Cascades at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Sinclair, J., 2011. Landscape Lover: http://land scapelover.wordpress.com/page/2/

Figure 36

Across the Buildings (2013) by Felice Varini. Author Unknown, 2013. King's Cross Central Limited Partnership: http://www.kingscross.co.uk/press-re lease-2013-05-09

Figure 37

Detail of Installation. Hamer, C., 2013. The Rowley Gallery: http://blog.rowleygallery. co.uk/page/13/

Figure 38

Panoramic view of the garden from the château’s dome. Vaux-le-Vicomte: http:// www.vaux-le-vicomte.com/download/

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Paul Richens and Mark Wilson Jones for all the help and advice given to me throughout this research paper.

I would also like to thank the staff and gardeners at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles and Chantilly for their time and opinions during my visit to the three châteaux in November 2013.

46