Design for a fountain surrounded by four square parterres for a pleasure garden

1651
Not on view
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 two plates, the first with a design for four square parterres around an octagonal fountain, separated by walking paths. The second plate, consists of a detail of the octagonal fountain, presenting half of it, made up of oval frames with scrolling motifs, separated by small leaves, flanked by two scrolls to the sides, which are in turn flanked by bundles of stylized scrolling leaves and flower buds. The designs inside the parterres consist of large, stylized orientalist flowers with scrolling branches and stylized leaves, framed possibly by bushes or boxwood. The motifs in the design were meant to be created, as stated by Mollet in the text, using boxwood embroideries.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Design for a fountain surrounded by 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 , Stockholm
  • Dedicatee: Kristina, Queen of Sweden (Swedish, 1626–1689)
  • Date: 1651
  • Medium: Engraving
  • Dimensions: Sheet (first): 18 1/2 × 15 9/16 in. (47 × 39.5 cm)
    Plate (first): 15 3/4 × 15 3/8 in. (40 × 39 cm)
    Sheet (second): 9 7/16 × 15 1/2 in. (24 × 39.4 cm)
    Plate (second): 8 × 15 3/16 in. (20.3 × 38.5 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(6)
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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André Mollet - Design for a fountain surrounded by four square parterres for a pleasure garden - The Metropolitan Museum of Art