- Rendez-vous de l'Institut
- Conference
Les livres de modèles de parterres en Europe (1500-1650)The books on garden borders in Europe (1500-1650) by Laurent PAYA – Château de Bénouville
The books on garden borders in Europe (1500-1650)
The printed works that reunite the pourtraicts that could be used to compile garden borders and flower beds form a heterogeneous corpus: collections of ornamental features, agricultural treatises, architectural treatises, etc. Their editorial objectives can also be divided into several categories: to illustrate the power of a prince/lord, to demonstrate an artist’s talent, to democratise aristocratic know-how, etc. Yet, they all bear witness to the chronological evolution and the geographical diversity of the manners which characterised garden art from the early modern period. And they are all based on the “principles” of artistic creation in the field of ornamentation: decorum (liking), figura (figure), copia (abundance) and elocutio (eloquence).
Laurent Paya
As a landscape engineer (INHP, Angers) and doctor in History of Art (CESR, Tours), Laurent Paya teaches landscape design and development and the graphical representation of projects. As a member of the CESR (Centre for Higher Studies on the Renaissance – University of Tours), he conducts research on the aesthetics of gardens, of ornaments, decors, landscapes and urban forms, in France and across the globe, during the early modern period. His work, which focuses on the elaboration and the dissemination of artistic, scientific and technological knowledge on the socialisation of nature, has led to a series of publications.