Review: A History of the Gardens of Versailles, by Michel Baridon and Adrienne Mason; Vaux and Versailles: The Appropriations, Erasures, and Accidents that Made Modern France, by Claire Goldstein; and Diplomatic Tours in the Gardens of Versailles under Louis XIV, by Robert W. Berger and Thomas F. Hedin

Abstract

Michel Baridon ; A History of the Gardens of Trans. Adrienne Mason Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture), 285 pp., 50 b/w illus. $55 (cloth), ISBN 9780812240788. Originally published as Histoire des Jardins de by L'Etablissement publique du museee et du domaine national de Versailles, 2003 Claire Goldstein ; Vaux and Versailles: Appropriations, Erasures, and Accidents that Made Modern France . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008, 270 pp., 24 b/w illus. $55 (cloth), ISBN 9780812240580 Robert W. Berger and Thomas F. Hedin ; Diplomatic Tours in the Gardens of under Louis XIV . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture), 169 pp., 41 b/w illus. $55 (cloth), ISBN 9780812241075 In spite of its title, Michel Baridon's short book is not a history of the gardens of Versailles. It is actually about the cultural and intellectual world that lay behind the creation of the landscape, both the world of King Louis XIV (1638––1715) and his court and the world of the science and arts of France in the Age of Reason. political issues that have preoccupied so many writers about Versailles, especially since the mid-twentieth century, are dealt with here in a general way, and briefly.1 use of mythological subjects in the gardens to convey the message of royal absolutism is treated in a few sketchy pages (21––36). chapter titles of Baridon's most substantial section——part two, The Empire of Geometry——make clear his approach to his subject: Versailles and the Academies; The Astronomers in the Garden: Measuring Nature; Engineers and Gardeners: Remodeling of the Gardens; Hydraulics and Physics: Water and Air; The World of Plants and the Silent Progress of the Life Sciences (61––117). This is the most interesting and original part of the book, one that is clearly not the work of an architectural historian. Baridon is a professor emeritus of English from the University of Burgundy. He is also visually sensitive and many of his best observations derive from this strength. He argues convincingly for the idea that the distant scenery is a major factor in the stunning effect of the gardens, a design aspect underrated by many scholars. When Baridon comes to discuss the use of garden views as illustrations in books on perspective, as in those by Jean du Breuil and Allain Mannesson-Mallet (figs. 13, 14), they serve to illustrate the role that the element of shadow was seen to play in the aesthetic of the garden in terms of …