Ideal 'Parquets' and 'Parquetages' by Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau: decorative mannerism and the art of gardens in France, in the sixteenth century

Résumé En

Recent scientific events and publications have enabled us to improve our knowledge of the life and works of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (1511-1586), a Huguenot architect to the Duchess of Este, well known for his architecture, ornament, furniture, metalwork and other decorative design prints and the founder of the Androuet Du Cerceau dynasty. His eclectic and profuse body of work, clearly influenced by the mannerisms of the School of Fontainebleau, but also by the works of an unknown Flemish artist from the 1530s, includes explicit plans and aerial views of the gardens in Les plus excellents bastiments de France (The Most Excellent Buildings of France) (1576-1579). In a 1979 article entitled 'Rise and decline of the garden knot' Kenneth Woodbridge has revealed that a series of interlacing compositions from Du Cerceau contains knot gardens in square compartments. In The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliotèque nationale de France (1994) Peter Fuhring supposed that these strapworks were models of 'Parterres'. But the recent Works catalog of this 'engraver by far the most productive of the XVI century' does not associate this series of knots with the art of gardening. This essay will attempt to demonstrate, using new data, that this series, less noticed by the specialists, is surely a capital example of the rebirth of French Garden Art initiated circa 1550, and developed between 1570 and 1610. The aim will be also to highlight the learning process of the invention of these models, and to assess their feasibility in situ by comparison with other early modern prototypes of knot gardens.