French Renaissance Garden Design
Symmetry and geometry are the keywords when designing such gardens.
French renaissance garden design. In 1495 king charles viii and his nobles brought the renaissance style back to france after their war campaign in italy. The french compartment gardens were simple squares designed by a continuous knot pattern or labyrinth. The style arrived in france in the 16th century and included symmetry parterres and geometrical shapes for planting schemes.
The first garden coordinated with a dwelling appeared at the château of anet 1547 56 and was designed by the architect philibert delorme but despite its evident sophistication it remained. This is the best in formal french garden design and easily recognizable with its symmetrical gravel paths versailles citrus planters ordered groves and neat topiary and principle axis from which the design flows. The gardens of the french renaissance is a garden style initially inspired by the italian renaissance garden which evolved later into the grander and more formal jardin à la française during the reign of louis xiv by the middle of the 17th century.
They reached their peak in the gardens of the royal château de fontainebleau château d amboise château de blois. Statues urns and planters and water features are all elements of french garden design. Dating back to the gardens of the french renaissance formal parterres were often used as decorative embellishments to add interest within a green space.
In composite designs all elements were included and made a combination of both separate carreaux and knot garden compartments. The key is restraint. All french gardens have a little versailles in them.
French garden design jardin à la française devolopped from the italian renaissance gardens. A carreaux pattern was a design of separate flower beds linked by an overall pattern. A simple fixture at the end of a gravel path is all you need as a focal point.
The french renaissance garden is similar to italian renaissance garden and takes cues from it. The gardens of vesailles that were created between 1662 and 1700 years by gardener andré le nôtre used to occupy 15 000 acres of land now it s just 800. The french invasions of italy in the last quarter of the 16th and first quarter of the 17th centuries introduced to france the idioms of the italian garden.