Le Nôtre und der Skulpturenschmuck in den Gärten von Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte und Versailles im 17. Jh
In Frankreich entstand die Gartenplastik zunächst in Verbindung mit den Brunnen. Diese Verknüpfung bestand noch lange nach dem Mittelalter und gipfelte in den Projekten des Charles Le Brun für die Gärten von Versailles. Nach dem Beispiel von Fontainebleau, wo seit Mitte des 16. Jhs. zum ersten Mal Skulpturen eigenständig auftraten, begann man in den Jahren 1620/ 1630 Skulpturen vereinzelt in Gärten aufzustellen. In diesem Zusammenhang macht uns die Wiederentdeckung der Gärten von Vaux-le-Vicomte wo fast 100 Skulpturen aufgestellt werden sollten, bewusst, wie neu die Aussagekraft dieses Phänomens zu Anfang der Herrschaft Ludwigs XIV. war. Sie zeigt uns weiterhin, welche Bedeutung Skulpturen und ihre Rolle bei der Gartengestaltung für André Le Nôtre besaßen. Bei seiner ersten Tätigkeit in Versailles gab diese Rolle den Ausschlag, trat in der Folge jedoch in den Hintergrund, wahrscheinlich unter dem Einfluss von Charles Le Brun. Sie kam erst 1683 wieder auf, nach dem Misslingen der ersten Wasserbeckenanlage, wurde dann aber eines der charakteristischen Merkmale der Gärten, die fortan «à la française » bezeichnet wurden.
The gardens of the Grand Trianon are usually attributed to André Le Nôtre. They also have the reputation of having suffered over time, albeit preserving their 17th-century organization. A more documented approach obliges us to reassess this picture. First of all, it was Michel Le Bouteux who created the gardens in 1670 and continued to extend them until 1682. It is he who gave them their structure and exceptional botanical richness. Le Nôtre succeeded him from 1687 to 1693, when the marble Trianon replaced the porcelain Trianon, but his work was limited to creating the king’s garden and the spaces bordering the wing known as the Trianon-sous-Bois, to providing a new design for the flower beds, and adding a waterway around the Plafond. Louis XIV then engaged Jules Hardouin-Mansart for the Chestnut Garden and the promenade, as well as a renewal of the flower beds, the pool around the Plafond and great stepped cascade. He also introduced the verdant nature rooms surrounded by geometrically pruned trees, set up fountains in the basins, and installed the first sculptural groups in the gardens. His work on the Trianon gardens was thus considerable. Several neglected documents have revealed that the entire garden was redesigned under the direction of Richard Mique in 1776, along with the replanting of the park at Versailles. At that time, the central spaces were enlarged in quincuncial arrangement, a second north-south axis brought into balance the original east-west axis, the sculpted decoration was recomposed, and all the plantings were renewed with new species. As the plan of the garden changed very little thereafter, it is Mique’s conception that we admire today at the Grand Trianon, much more than that of Le Nôtre.
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