Les jardins sont la partie la plus riante d’une maison. Siertuinen bij adellijke residenties in de 17de en de 18de eeuw

Abstract

Chris De Maegd, ‘ Les jardins sont la partie la plus riante d’une maison’. Gardens of noble residences in the 17th and 18th century This article deals with the 1600-1800 gardens of the elite in this region, except those of the princely residences. Our analysis is based on the reading of their presentation in the works of Vredeman de Vries, Sanderus, Leroy, Derons, Leloup, de Cantillon, manuscript maps and plans of Brussels. The background and meaning of the popularity of gardens from the second half of the 16th century is touched on, as well as the inspiring model of the mediaeval hortus conclusus for the geometric, formal or ‘ French’ garden style and the importance of garden literature. The following gardens are explored in more detail : the gardens of Charles de Croÿ in Sint-Joostten-Noode ; those of the actual Hotel de Merode in the Wolstraat owned by the Duke de Bournonville and remodelled in the third quarter of the 18th century by E mpress Marie-Thérèse’s minister Charles Cobenzl ; those in Lochristi designed for the Ghent bishop Ferdinand de Lobkowitz ; those in Gors Opleeuw of Baron van Mettecoven ; and those of Velbruck, Prince Bishop of Liège in Hex. By doing so, we obtain a synopsis of garden layouts in the Renaissance, the Baroque and Rococo period. The ‘ jardin anglois’ or E nglish garden, initially a mere contrasting curvilinear bosquet in the unchanged classical garden layout, gradually evolved, after the ancien régime, into a specific garden style from which, parallel with the changing society, the landscape style that was to be ubiquitous during the 19th century would evolve.