Design for a fountain and four square parterres for a pleasure garden
Engraving, with a garden design, part of an album with with 30 plates (mostly folded) of garden designs created by André Mollet and dedicated to Queen Kristina of Sweden. The album intends to provide inspiration for garden designers in France and Sweden in the creation of flower beds, groves, and other garden decorations.This design consists of a design for a circular fountain and four square parterres, separated by walking paths. The fountain, of circular shape, is on the upper part of the design. Below it are the four square parterres, with designs made up of cornucopias with rich bundles of scrolling leaves and stylized flowers, meant to be bordered by streams of water. The motifs in the design were meant to be created, as stated by Mollet in the text, using boxwood embroideries. In the center is an octagonal-shaped canopy or garden house, which Mollet suggests in the text must be included as often as possible among boxwood embroideries, providing a place for rest in the gardens.
Artwork Details
- Title: Design for a fountain and four square parterres for a pleasure garden
- Designer: André Mollet (French, active 17th century)
- Designer: Jacques Mollet (French)
- Designer: Noel Mollet (French)
- Engraver: Jan van de Velde IV (Dutch, Utrecht before 1610–1686 Haarlem)
- Engraver: Wolfgang Hartmann
- Publisher: Henry Kayser , Stockholme
- Dedicatee: Kristina, Queen of Sweden (Swedish, 1626–1689)
- Date: 1651
- Medium: Engraving
- Dimensions: Sheet: 19 1/8 × 15 1/2 in. (48.5 × 39.4 cm)
Plate: 18 5/16 × 14 13/16 in. (46.5 × 37.7 cm)
Album: 15 3/4 × 10 1/16 × 1 1/8 in. (40 × 25.5 × 2.9 cm) - Classifications: Books, Prints, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926
- Object Number: 26.104.5(12)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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