Design 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 plate contains a design for the plan of a pleasure garden of rectangular shape with semi-circular 'bumps' on the upper and lower parts. In the center is a round fountain, surrounded by two rectancular parterres on the bottom, and two parterres above with semi-circular upper part. Below it is a rectangular frame, possibly to be made of pine trees, with two blank spaces outlined inside it. On the sides of the two are four rectangular empty spaces, likely to be filled by boxwood embroideries or 'compartiments de gazon' (grass designs). Above the parterres framing the fountain are four triangular spaces, filled with rows of trees. Framing the garden plan are three double-rows of trees, the outer two separated by water canals, and the inner two separated by walking paths.
Artwork Details
- Title: Design 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 , Stockholm
- Dedicatee: Kristina, Queen of Sweden (Swedish, 1626–1689)
- Date: 1651
- Medium: Engraving
- Dimensions: Sheet: 22 15/16 × 15 7/16 in. (58.3 × 39.2 cm)
Plate: 22 3/8 × 13 3/4 in. (56.8 × 35 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(2)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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