WEBVTT - André Le Nôtre, Part 2 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.040 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:12.800 of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.919 to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Uh. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.319 This is the second part of a two parter on 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:24.079 Andre Lenore, who is France's famous gardener. We discussed for 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.240 the first episode how that term doesn't really encompass all 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.320 that he was or did, but it is usually how 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.680 he has defined historically. And on the last episode we 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.080 talked about Andre Lenotre's early life and how with one 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.720 high profile project he went from being a well respected 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.720 royal gardener and controller to being tapped by King Louis 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.720 the fourteenth for a project that was going to be 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.400 epic in scale, and so here in part two, we're 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.040 going to pick up with that project, how it played out, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:52.600 and then take you right on through the end of 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.800 Lenotre's life and also how his work is seen today. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.680 You're not gonna be completely lost if you pixings up 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.360 here and you didn't listen to part one, but you're 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.240 gonna miss out on a really juicy story about how 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.080 that big project that kind of made him famous. UH 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.000 contributed to a member of the royal court being imprisoned 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:14.679 for life, not because Andre's designed it, but because it 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.360 was lavish and beautiful. It's a juicy story. Go back 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.440 and listen. So we're gonna pick up right where we 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.000 left off. So we ended the last episode with the 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.440 king tasking Andre lenotre with designing the gardens of Versailles. 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.920 When Louis fourt decided that he wanted to renovate the 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:36.039 chateau and have landscaped crowns there, it was initially because 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.720 he just loved the hunting lodge and he liked life 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.720 in the country. He preferred it to Paris, where he 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.600 was always being watched, and it gave him a getaway 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.920 where he could arrange romantic liaisons. But by the mid 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.200 sixteen seventies, the king had decided to move the royal 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:55.720 court from Paris to the redesigned Versailles. And while Andre 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.440 Lenot had been a royal gardener, as we said before, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.840 this project heading up the garden plans of Versailles was 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.760 very different because it was a true collaboration with the 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.920 monarch and Louis the fourteen had opinions about plants and gardens, 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.960 as he was an avid gardener, himself, but Lenopla was 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.680 really the perfect creative match for the king. Where Louis 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:22.320 could be mercurial and impulsive, Lenore was relaxed and steadfast, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.680 and the two very different personalities managed to achieve a 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.320 balanced sort of harmony as they plotted out and executed 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.760 this massive project. It really helped that Lenota was truly 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.679 a royalist, that he was very devoted to Louis the fourteenth, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.360 and the young king in turn, who was in his 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.040 twenties at this point, seemed to really enjoy the company 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.800 of the older Lenore, who did not seem to be 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.720 scheming in his relationship with the monarch in any way. 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.240 Lenore also had to work with Lebron and Leveaux, as 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.400 he had at void of Acomte, and he had to 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.960 juggle the personalities of these two men plus the king 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.320 throughout the project. Leva died in sixteen seventy and his 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.720 assistant Friendsois Doorbet finished the work. Later, work on both 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.560 the chateau and the gardens was commissioned by Jules Hardoin Montsart. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.760 Lenotre didn't seem to let constantly changing targets bother or 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.880 unsettle him, and through it all, he wasn't just working 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.880 with the King and his design collaborators. He was managing 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.640 thousands of people in order to fulfill the desires of 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.360 the Crown at a magnitude that was beyond anything any 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.840 of them had ever worked on before. So if you 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.519 visit their side today, which we have been lucky enough 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.360 to do, it is all paved and landscaped and manicured, 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.760 and it is absolutely breathtaking. But that location, as has 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.840 come up on the show before, was a hunting lodge 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.640 before Louis four decided to redo it and eventually make 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.720 it into a palace, and it was out in the country. 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.280 So what Lenotto was faced with was turning a whole 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.360 lot of swampy, muddy ground. It is something worthy of 0:03:54.400 --> 0:04:00.120 French royalty, no small task. The diarist Louis d'arrouva, the 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.520 Duke de Saint Simol, wrote of the Versailles site that 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.800 it was quote the saddest and most barren of places, 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.360 with no view, no wood, no water, and no earth, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.840 for it is all shifting sand and marsh, and the 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.640 air consequently is bad. And apart from that, it was 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.200 a lot of land like that. By the time Louis 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.600 the fourteenth finished acquiring parcels of adjacent land to expand 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.919 the existing site. There was about fifteen thousand acres or 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.640 six thousand hectars. Lenotre spent thirty years working on Versailles, 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.159 turning it from that marshy expanse to a place of 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.200 just unparalleled splendor. I feel compelled to point out that 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.000 a lot of people will say Saint Simon in his 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.240 writing was a little bit um of a drama lama 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.880 and could exaggerate things, so it may or may not 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.279 have been quite as bad as he described it. But 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.200 everyone agreed pretty universally that it was a weird place 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.080 for the king. I want to put a lot of 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.400 effort in and that splendor that was created came at 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.880 a very significant cost, partially because of that weird land, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.479 and that cost was both in money and in men. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.120 It was estimated that the cost of just leveling and 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.440 excavating the land and preparing the clay basins for water 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.840 tallied up to more than six million livre, and a 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.440 lot of men also died over the course of construction, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.600 with the numbers of people injured on the job totaling 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.400 in the thousands. The primary causes for these deaths and 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.919 injuries were landslips while digging out the various water features, 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.240 and malaria because that marshy ground is a perfect place 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.839 for mosquitoes to be very very happy. A similar human 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.920 cost had taken place during the construction at Vodeviculte, where 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.080 serious injuries and mortalities were so common that a new 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.080 hospital had to be established to handle them all. I 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.760 read one story, but I didn't read any verification on 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.760 it because I didn't particularly chase after it that at 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:01.200 Versailles they were basically letting people kind of like fall. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.640 They would move the bodies, but they wouldn't permanently move 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.240 them off the site until nighttime because they didn't want 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.400 to like be carding dead bodies through the workers and 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.560 demoralize them as they were digging. Just terrible. There are 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.960 a lot of discussions to be had about the moral 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.920 implications of of spending so much money on something like this. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.480 We're not digging super deep into them, but I want 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.919 to mention that, like, there is human costs when you 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.000 are indulging in something at this level. And this work 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.760 was all done by hand. It was largely staffed by 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.360 soldiers who were doing this work in between military engagements. 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.520 The initial plan for organizing all of us at Versailles 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.719 was to lay the landscaping elements out along a long 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.440 axis with cross axes creating partitions within that, and the 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.520 symmetry there was used to great effect. There was a 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.560 rudimentary version of the east to west access already in 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.880 place on the site when Lenore arrived at Versailles, and 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.120 he fortified and extended it, including adding the gray and 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.680 canal and creating what came to be known as the 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:07.039 Grand Perspective. This east west alignment of the whole thing 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.800 ensured that the movement of the sun over the gardens 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.560 and the property would make it the perfect place for 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.600 the sun king, because the sun rose on one side, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.640 crossed the long length of the property and then had 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.440 a beautiful sunset on the horizon on the other side. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:24.920 And looking out from the windows in the Hall of 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.200 Mirrors offers a full view of the Grand Perspective, or 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.640 in French the GM perspective, leading the eye down the 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.920 elongated Great Lawn as it meets a rounded fountain that 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.560 sits between the lawn and the canal, and then extending 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.920 the eye line down the canal again sort of to infinity. 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.040 Having seen that perspective, it is a little bit like 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.920 your brain can't process how far it goes on. Uh. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.520 Lenola also added a north south access, which eventually included 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.520 a number of prominent spaces in the design, including the 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.960 water walk, the Neptune Fountain, and the orangerie. There are 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.200 very few survive having documents that feature Lenotre's garden designs, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.200 and most of those are sort of dutally rough sketches 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.800 that suggests that he was working out concepts with pen 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:11.920 and paper. We also don't have any clear notes on 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.480 how he worked or executed his design, so how things 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.520 transitioned from design idea to finished formal garden have to 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.640 be pieced together through the writings of other people, and 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:27.320 even then there are very few specifics to Lenotre, although 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.120 the best practices written out by men such as Desaier 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.880 darjan Via in his early eighteenth century book Latiori a 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:40.120 la practic Jardinage are undoubtedly heavily influenced by Lenotre's work. 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:45.800 There are some people that will say that we don't 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.240 have surviving designs of Lenota because he didn't actually ever 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.600 write out any designs. That seems unlikely. I think most 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.640 historians will say that that doesn't really make any sense um, 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.200 because the stuff he was doing was so careful and 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.319 mathematical that even if he were a genius that could 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:06.920 see it that way, you would have needed to have 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.679 plans to direct the actual construction and layout and uh 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:16.640 excavation that had to happen. And the team that Louis 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.560 the fourteenth had assembled was quickly tasked with things like 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.640 creating that orangerie for the orange trees that he had 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.199 taken from vaule Vicomte uh and creating a menagerie space 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.200 for what some would consider the first zoo in the 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.160 Western world. For anybody that has maybe seen pictures of 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.760 Version doesn't know, there's a famous section that you often 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.160 see because it's very striking, which has these little partires 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.240 of low boxwood hedges that are cut into curly Q shapes. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.600 That is the orangerie. If you look closely, there are 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.560 pathways through it, and there's a circular center part to it, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:52.000 and orange trees are arranged in planters all around those walkways. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:53.760 So that is that is what we're talking about when 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.560 we say the Orangerie. Yeah, let them take the orange 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.720 trees inside when the weather was not going to be 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.079 conducive to their being there. They do not love a winter. 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:10.760 They a French winter is too cold for uh citrus normally. Yeah, 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.320 I don't know why. It wasn't until we were in 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:18.080 Paris and someone explained that to me that I was like, oh, right, 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.600 of course. Obviously, in just a moment, we will talk 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.440 about how Lenore tackled this immense task to turn swamp 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.559 into a royal garden, but will pause first for a 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:41.840 quick sponsor break. As we said before, set to partition 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.960 the land out in that access based grid for the 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.680 various elements of design that he wanted to include. Low 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.440 parterres were designed to sit nearest the chateau on three sides, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.000 so that the open sight lines of that lower level 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.760 could be maintained the north partire, the South partire, and 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.840 the water partre. As the gardens extended farther back from 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.240 the chateau, they were then laden with all manner of surprises. 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.439 The paths that crossed the Grand perspective lead visitors into 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.200 the groves of Versailles, each of which is unique. Lenotre 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.240 created fifteen of them. Initially, some were modified and others 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.720 were added by later designers. These groves featured fountains and 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.600 sculptures that were designed by Lebron, each having its own identity. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.960 These groves included the Ancient Gallery that was an outdoor 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.280 exhibition of sculptures, the Grove of Domes, which includes a 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.800 hexagonal pool in the center, the Grove of three Fountains, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.480 which is credited as being the King's idea, and a 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.280 marsh grove which featured plants that were sculpted out of 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.920 metal all around its central fountain. There was also a 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.080 ballroom grove which was a tiered amphitheater, which was the 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.880 last grove that lenotre created that was completed in six 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.840 Having walked around some of these wonderful, surprising little spaces 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:03.120 in Versailles, they're delightful and you wonder how like these 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:08.319 very complicated structures are existing seemingly tucked into like little 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:14.800 private areas. But they are so um It's not like 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.080 you find a little open space with benches. I mean, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.840 they're like little rooms. They're not little either, but compared 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:23.600 to the rest of the grounds that you're on, they're 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.679 like their own. It's like walking into like themed rooms 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:31.000 in a really like um creatively designed house or something. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:36.200 It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. In sixteen sixty five, Linota started 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.800 plans for a labyrinth for one of the groves at Versailles. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.559 That was a feature that was popular on France estates 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.760 at the time. That labyrinth wasn't completed until the mid 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.280 sixteen seventies, in part because the King, on the advice 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.600 of writer Charles Perrault, asked for a redesign. In sixteen 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.360 sixty nine. Perot was the author credited with the first 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.000 published Mother Goose. Stories that have become such classics include 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.480 Being Cinderella, Little Red, Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. Lenotre 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:09.040 redrafted the labyrinths to include several dozen fountains to represent 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:14.000 the story of Esop's fables. That's included carefully designed statuary 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.960 and a whole lot of plumbing. The labyrinth and several 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:21.200 other groves were later replaced and a redesigned by Jules 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.280 hardom Montsart when he was tasked with updating the grounds. Yeah, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:29.319 the labyrinth was was taken away, which is a pity. Um. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.640 As with his other work that we've talked about, Leno 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.120 once again used visual trickery and interest points all over Versailles. 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.600 He made rectangles that would look like squares from certain angles, 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.320 or he created parterres of swirled boxwoods, kind of like 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.320 we talked about in the Orangerie, that were trained and 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.280 cut into shapes that resembled the scrolls that were found 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.680 on carpets, tapestries, and clothing embellishments. While Versailles was a 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.280 career defining accomplishment, Lenore went on to do a whole 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.040 lot of other work after it was finished. As for 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.720 Louis the fourteenth, he continued to make changes to the 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.600 ground as his desires and whims shifted right up until 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.960 his death. But the gardens of Versailles today are still 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.760 very much governed by the designs that were developed and 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.480 executed by Lenore. They didn't, of course, stay that way 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.040 from his time up until now. They have at various 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.440 points been replaced, like we said, fallen into disrepair, etcetera. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.960 But several of the groves and other features have been 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.160 restored in recent years to how they looked in le 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.680 Nutless time. But there is an interesting difference. In his 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.680 book The Sun King's Garden, author Ian Thompson, who is 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.560 a PhD in landscape architecture notes a key difference between 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.040 the restored Versailles gardens of today versus what they looked 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.840 like when Le Nutla was in charge. Based on eighteenth 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.920 century engravings of the space, it appears that things were 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.320 a lot more angular and sharply maintained in the eighteenth century, 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.400 where quote, the hedges are so immaculately clipped that they 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.760 look like walls. All of the fountains involved in Versailles 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.200 created a need for a lot of water, and that 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.400 was a need that was just impossible to meet. Fountains 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.000 would have to be turned on as the king approached 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.720 and then turn off once he was a distance away. 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:17.359 A monstrous two hundred twenty one pump device with twenty 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.240 massive water wheels was developed in the sixteen eighties. That 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.960 was called the Machine to Marley, and it was meant 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.720 to bring water in from the sin but it created 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.960 way more problems than it was worth, and it also 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.200 never really fulfilled its mission of bringing in enough water 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.760 to keep more than two thousand fountains going at Versailles. Yeah, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.680 that is another thing that I would love to make 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.920 into an episode of its own at some point in time, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.880 because just the drawings of it are bad breaking and 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.400 there is a lot of tragedy associated with it as well. 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.760 When I got to this, as I was reading through 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.360 this this earlier this morning, I was like, I want 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.520 to know more about this machine. Yeah, it's um, it's 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.440 a thing, and I do want to talk about it 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.080 at some point in the future. Uh. Taking on a 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.840 project like Versailles surely occupied a great deal of Andre 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.880 Lenotola's time, but he still did not work exclusively at 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.560 the new palace location, and he continued to accept other contracts. 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.320 This was a very shrewd thing to do, because his 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:23.080 close association with the king and the universal recognition of 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.560 the genius of the vaux Le Vicomte gardens meant that 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.800 he was in very high demand among the nobility of France, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.920 and he could command very lucrative commissions. The Notes started 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.040 another challenging project at just about the same time that 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.960 he started work on Versailles. That was the gardens of 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.120 the Prince of Conde Louis, the Second Debble. Those gardens 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.800 at the Chateau de Chaunty posed their own unique problems, 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.040 most notably the fact that while Conde wanted the symmetrical, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.280 manicured look that Lenore was becoming famous for the chateau 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.800 itself had a really strangely shaped, asymmetrical moat that did 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:03.680 not naturally lend itself to Lenotre's design aesthetic. To add 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.520 to that dilemma, the Prince of Conde was not willing 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.800 to knock down any of the old buildings on the 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.160 property and service to this new design layout. Still, Leno 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.960 took the job, and he turned his skill at making 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.919 order out of chaos to it. He couldn't make the 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.840 chateau a central point on an access that bisected the land, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.480 as was normally what he would do, because the house 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.919 was also offset from the center of the property and 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.400 the house itself was not symmetrical. It was kind of like, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.720 here are a bunch of ingredients that do not make 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.680 any sense for a cake. Please make a cake out 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.520 of them. And he was like, okay. Uh So the 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.639 main access avenue of the design actually runs parallel to 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.080 the front of the chateau, So for a visitor that's 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.520 approaching the main gate, which sits at the center of 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.119 the layout, the chateau is in the distance and to 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.520 the left, and the grand gardens, which are situated beyond 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.320 the chateau can't really be seen until you've reached the 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.000 grand terrace due to the main entry path being a 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.359 slight uphill incline, and the once a visitor reaches the 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.240 central terrace, the large water feature and grand gardens emerge. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.160 It's kind of like a visual surprise as you get 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.399 to that apex and they stretch out across the property. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.800 And for all the challenges that Lenotre faced at Schantay, 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.840 the property had one resource that made the engineering aspect 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.760 of it easier than other projects. It had a close 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.840 proximity to the River Nonette, which was a tributary of 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.600 the Wise, meaning that water was always plentiful. So despite 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.480 the challenges, Lenotre, who worked on the gardens there for 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.280 two decades, spoke of it late in his life as 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.920 an example of a great French formal garden. In sixteen 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.600 sixty four, the King and Colbert agreed that Lenore should 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.040 redesign the Tuilerie gardens, and he changed them from the 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.439 designs that had been in place since Catherine de Medici 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.800 had commissioned the gardens to the popular formal French garden 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.800 of which he was the master. He expanded the garden 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.840 by lengthening its access to the west, creating the line 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.800 of what would eventually evolve to the chansa lise. This 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.560 if you are Intoli today, there are some modern editions, 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.720 like their modern play areas and cafes, but the layout 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.120 is still exactly what Lenota set up. In sixteen seventy, 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.160 Jean Baptiste Colbert, who is the same person who had 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:18.879 schemed to have Nicola Fouquet arrested, hired Lenotre to design 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.080 a park to surround his new home at Chateau to So, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.000 several miles outside of Paris. There was no accident that 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.280 he had waited nine years after the vote of a 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.520 compe scandal to have his own chateau made over. Colbert, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.720 like a lot of people in the nobility, didn't want 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.119 to similarly be associated with this conspicuous opulence or to 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.760 look suspicious with their spending in the wake of Fouquets 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.560 fall from grace. Yeah, he basically just like waited it 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:49.399 out until he felt like it was safe because he 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:54.720 also wanted a beautiful chateau with grounds designed by Lenotla. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.080 And even though he hired Lenotla, Colbert was still very 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.199 very careful not to go too far with his chateaus grounds. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.639 Uh to us it would seem like extremely extravagant and lavish, 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.280 but at the time he had dialed it back. Lenottla 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.800 did design a spectacular eighteen basin cascade feature for so 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.840 as well as the most powerful fountain effect known to 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.800 France at the time. That shot watered twenty five ft 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:20.880 into the air. That's a little less than eight meters. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.040 The Notre's work in redefining the tulry and sculpting the 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.320 grounds of Versailles made him even more of a darling 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.360 with the upper class, and that extended outside of France. 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.560 Everyone wanted him to turn his skill at creating grand 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.760 vistas to their own properties. While work at Versailles was ongoing, 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.840 he traveled outside of France and lent his expertise and 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.480 artistry to other landscapes. He traveled to London in the 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.320 early sixteen sixties at the behest of Charles the Second 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.040 to design Greenwich Park, and he took on projects in 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.520 Italy and Germany as well as all over France. Yeah, 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.000 he was so busy. It's one of those things where 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.120 I mean, we work on law to different stuff here, 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.080 but I can't imagine the scale of things he was 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.080 working on, and he would just be juggling like tons 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.240 of these contracts at a time. Uh. Next up, we 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.000 are going to cover the last segment of Lenotre's life 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.080 and his enduring influence, but we're going to take a 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:25.480 quick sponsor break before we do that. In sixteen seventy five, 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.480 King Louis the fourteenth made Andre Lenore a noble, and 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:31.840 when the king asked the master gardener what he would 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.720 like to have included on his coat of arms, Lenotrea 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.480 replied that he wanted three snails ahead of cabbage and 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.040 a spade to represent the thing that had brought him 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.560 such favor from the king. I find this so charming 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:49.080 it is, and you can see um images of what 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.920 are probably the coat of arms designed for him. There's 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.600 some question marks about whether those are the actual ones 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.960 or uh, something that someone else just drew up by 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.760 sat on this story, but they are very, very charming, 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.280 and there are three snails in lieu of a spade 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.960 directly represented. There's like a chevron that kind of is 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.919 intended to represent the tip of an appointed spade, but 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.119 there is a head of cabbage in the top and 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:18.240 three snails spaced out beautifully on the rest of the 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.159 the coat. In sixteen seventy nine, Lenotre traveled to Italy, 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.240 where he spent the majority of the year visiting gardens 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.400 and important people. There, he made an interesting stop along 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.479 the way, diverting his trip to pin Roll in northwestern Italy. 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.840 This was the prison where his former employer, Nicola Fouquet 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:38.800 had been sent to live out his life under lock 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:41.760 and key. So even though he had fallen from his 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.359 position within the French court, it seems that Lenotre had 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:49.560 maintained at least some relationship with Fouquet. Yeah, this also 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.320 sort of upholds that ongoing image that's always portrayed of 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.120 Lenotre is just being an incredibly nice person, Like, even 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:59.400 though everyone else kind of turned their back on Fouquet, 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.040 he he didn't think of him as somebody that he 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:06.680 couldn't maintain a relationship with, even though weren't anybody else 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:08.840 who made a visit like that. It probably would have 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.119