Jacques Boyceau
Encyclopedia
Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie (ca. 1560 – 1633) was a French garden designer, the superintendent of royal gardens under Louis XIII
, whose posthumously-produced Traité du iardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, pelouzes, bosquets et autres ornements was published in 1638. Its sixty engravings after Boyceau's designs make it one of the milestones in tracing the history of the Garden à la française
(French formal garden). His nephew Jacques de Menours, who produced the volume, included an engraved frontispiece with the portrait of Boyceau.
A few of the plates show formally planted bosquet
s, but the majority are of designs for parterre
s. The accompanying text asserts that some of these designs have been used at royal residences: the Palais du Luxembourg, where the two axes at right angles survive from Boyceau's original plan, the Jardin des Tuileries, the newly-built château of Saint Germain-en-Laye, even at the simple château at Versailles
.
Boyceau was made a gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi and ennobled for his efforts, as the sieur de la Barauderie.
Boyceau's book is the first French work to treat the esthetic of gardening, not simply its practice. It was designed for the patron rather than for the gardener, but it had an influence on the designs of André Le Nôtre
, who transformed the manner of Boyceau and of the Mollet dynasty of royal gardeners—Claude Mollet
and André Mollet
—to create the culminating French Baroque gardens, exemplified at Vaux-le-Vicomte
and Versailles
.
His engraving reproducing the parterre design centered on the garden front of the Luxembourg employs the monogram of Marie de' Medici
, part of a centrally-oriented design with a central pool with a single water jet in a sunken plat, surrounded by four sloped spandrel
compartments and outer framing compartments, all filled with fine rinceaux that were executed in clipped boxwood
and colored gravels and were set in wide gravel walks. The design, which expressed variety within a unified ensemble, was best appreciated fromn the windows of the piano nobile
. It was swept away shortly after 1693 in favour of the broader, simpler parterre of Claude Desgotz
.
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
, whose posthumously-produced Traité du iardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, pelouzes, bosquets et autres ornements was published in 1638. Its sixty engravings after Boyceau's designs make it one of the milestones in tracing the history of the Garden à la française
Garden à la française
The French formal garden, also called jardin à la française, is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order over nature. It reached its apogee in the 17th century with the creation of the Gardens of Versailles, designed for Louis XIV by the landscape architect André Le...
(French formal garden). His nephew Jacques de Menours, who produced the volume, included an engraved frontispiece with the portrait of Boyceau.
A few of the plates show formally planted bosquet
Bosquet
In the French formal garden, a bosquet is a formal plantation of trees, at least five of identical species planted as a quincunx, or set in strict regularity as to rank and file, so that the trunks line up as one passes along either face...
s, but the majority are of designs for parterre
Parterre
A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
s. The accompanying text asserts that some of these designs have been used at royal residences: the Palais du Luxembourg, where the two axes at right angles survive from Boyceau's original plan, the Jardin des Tuileries, the newly-built château of Saint Germain-en-Laye, even at the simple château at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
.
Boyceau was made a gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi and ennobled for his efforts, as the sieur de la Barauderie.
Boyceau's book is the first French work to treat the esthetic of gardening, not simply its practice. It was designed for the patron rather than for the gardener, but it had an influence on the designs of André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France...
, who transformed the manner of Boyceau and of the Mollet dynasty of royal gardeners—Claude Mollet
Claude Mollet
Claude Mollet , premier jardinier du Roy— first gardener to three French kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV—was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in the seventeenth century...
and André Mollet
André Mollet
André Mollet was a French garden designer, the son of Claude Mollet—gardener to three French kings—and the grandson of Jacques Mollet, gardener at the château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France....
—to create the culminating French Baroque gardens, exemplified at Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...
and Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
.
His engraving reproducing the parterre design centered on the garden front of the Luxembourg employs the monogram of Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...
, part of a centrally-oriented design with a central pool with a single water jet in a sunken plat, surrounded by four sloped spandrel
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
compartments and outer framing compartments, all filled with fine rinceaux that were executed in clipped boxwood
Buxus
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood ....
and colored gravels and were set in wide gravel walks. The design, which expressed variety within a unified ensemble, was best appreciated fromn the windows of the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
. It was swept away shortly after 1693 in favour of the broader, simpler parterre of Claude Desgotz
Claude Desgotz
Claude Desgotz was the nephew and protegé of André Le Nôtre, the designer of the French formal gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles that set the pattern for grand gardening in France up to the Revolution, in spite of increasing competition from the informal English landscape style...
.
External links
- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gard_2/hod_26.104.2.htm Metropolitan Museum, Jacques Boyceau, parterre at the Palais du Luxembourg
- Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie
- F Hamilton Hazlehurst, 1966. Jacques Boyceau and the French Formal Garden (Athens, University of Georgia Press)