Overview
The Gardens at Versailles, the most extravagant and influential gardens in European history, emerged from the long association of Louis XIV and his master gardener, Andre Le Notre. Born in Paris, the son and grandson of gardeners, Le Notre grew up in the Tuileries Gardens and in the nearby royal workshops of the Louvre. He was recognized as a genius in his time, particularly for his innovative use of perspective and reflective water surfaces. His services were sought by the rich and powerful, and he moved at ease among them. On a trip to Rome, overwhelmed by Pope Innocent XI's interest in his work, he took him in his arms and kissed him, to the later disbelief of the court back at Versailles. In this well-documented and poetic portrait, Erik Orsenna recounts Le Notre's life, friendships, and achievements. He describes a deeply creative man, whose savoir-faire and good nature gained him the King's friendship and allowed him to give free reign to his artistic talent. "You are a happy man, Le Notre," Louis XIV told him. This book abounds with evidence that this was true.Synopsis
The Gardens at Versailles, the most extravagant and influential gardens in European history, emerged from the long association of Louis XIV and his master gardener, Andre Le Notre. Born in Paris, the son and grandson of gardeners, Le Notre grew up in the Tuileries Gardens and in the nearby royal workshops of the Louvre. He was recognized as a genius in his time, particularly for his innovative use of perspective and reflective water surfaces. His services were sought by the rich and powerful, and he moved at ease among them. On a trip to Rome, overwhelmed by Pope Innocent XI's interest in his work, he took him in his arms and kissed him, to the later disbelief of the court back at Versailles. In this well-documented and poetic portrait, Erik Orsenna recounts Le Notre's life, friendships, and achievements. He describes a deeply creative man, whose savoir-faire and good nature gained him the King's friendship and allowed him to give free reign to his artistic talent. "You are a happy man, Le Notre," Louis XIV told him. This book abounds with evidence that this was true.
Publishers Weekly
In this charming paean to Louis XIV's gardener Andr? Le N?tre and his gardens, Orsenna, a novelist and head of the National School of Landscaping at Versailles, guides us graciously through Le N?tre's quintessentially French landscapes, combating perceptions that they are austere, rigid or calculated. The cultivated audience the book is likely to attract will appreciate the brief, impressionistic chapters on the grand si?cle's twin passions for order and surprise, method and illusion that interplay in these grounds. Orsenna unveils for readers the subtle and mischievous optical fantasies (dependent on the emergent science of perspective) hidden from unsuspecting visitors. He warms the "icy silence" that now cloaks Versailles by evoking the fountains' murmuring music, orchestrated to greet the king as each came within his view, and conjures the mellifluous music once performed here. The author discloses subtle departures from the gardens' prevailing order that only those in conscious thrall of their controlled beauty can fully relish. Among the greatest secrets harbored by these studied collages of water, stone and vegetation is their construction: Le N?tre left no written account of his plans or activities, nor of his conversations with his boss. But readers learn that Versailles, 35 years in the making, involved a daunting mental prowess and dizzying engineering feats, sometimes with 35,000 men simultaneously at work. Driven by the king's ferocious ego and Le N?tre's determination to have the last word with nature, this unrestrained extravagance vitalizes Versailles, belying its cool surface restraint. Orsenna, enamored by his surroundings and beguiled by the man who so many years agodevoted his life to them, offers an engaging tour. Photos and illus. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.