Sixteenth-Century Garden: French Gardens

Restoration was commenced in the first decade of the twentieth century by Dr. Carvallo, who replaced the moat and re-established the original levels and divisions. The effect on the apparent elevation of the chateau of restoring the moat and the accuracy of the reconstruction in general are both excellent, but the interpretation placed upon the sixteenth-century garden by Dr. Carvallo is too fine drawn . . . `The bassecour is low, the forecourt somewhat raised, the court of honour yet higher. Owner, passer-by, and beasts are each set in their place, yet related and without possibility of confusion. This disposition is typical of French domestic planning as originally conceived by the Benedictines and reflected in all seigniorial establishments until the end of the eighteenth century. Thereafter, however, such ordered planning was abandoned, and at Villandry, as at Versailles, the nineteenth century destroyed the levels distinguishing the functional purpose of each court, substituting a single inclined plane: so that men and creatures insensibly slid in the direction of the stables, while animals, without the least effort, could stray into the drawing-room." In fact the sixteenth-century garden had no such hierarchical significance; the Benedictines had no influence on domestic garden planning; and the `inclined plane' of Versailles was a seventeenth- and not a nineteenth-century concept and was based on Alberti and Pliny himself. At Dampierre or to a lesser extent at Villandry there is another feature of continuing importance to the French garden . . . the lake. In ancient Rome it was an imperial amusement to create great artificial areas of water on which mock naval battles were fought. They were water-tourneys or naumachia. Although not unknown in Renaissance Italy (where everything of classical origin had a certain cachet) they were more common in theory than in fact. In Spain and Portugal the great ponds or tanks were never as large as these and had a different ancestry. There is a plan of this date for a castle partially moated which has a very large rectangular lake on the unmoated side and on the lake some boat-shaped objects are drawn. This plan has been attributed to Leonardo and, if the attribution is correct, the naumachia came to France via the Master of the Revels to the Duke of Milan; it is certainly a form of entertainment likely to have appealed to him. The naumachia itself did not flourish, but the site designed for it did, and served in more elegant and decorous days for such water fetes as were painted by Fragonard.