Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie

Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie

Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie (* around 1562 in Saint-Jean-d'Angély , † around 1634 in Paris ), French garden architect. Boyceau worked under Kings Henri IV and Louis XIII . He is considered to be a pioneer of the classic French garden before André Le Nôtre . An important gardening book arose from his practical experience and theoretical considerations.

Origin and youth

Boyceau came from the lower nobility. Together with his childhood friend Charles de Biron, the son of one of the military leaders of Henri IV, he began a military career. The two young men took part in the Battle of Coutras and the capture of Luçon .

With his departure from the army Boyceau was awarded the title of gentil homme ordinaire de la chambre du Roi . Little is known about Boyceau's training as a horticultural architect. He received the title of intendant des jardins du Roi ("garden manager of the king").

Work and meaning

The design of the garden for Jacques Nompar de Caumont (1558–1652) in the Périgord in 1610 established Boyceau's reputation as a skilled garden architect. In the 1620s he worked in the gardens of Fontainebleau Castle and the Jardin des Tuileries, among others . His next major work was the design of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris for Maria de 'Medici .

Boyceau's main work was that for Louis XIII. designed Petit Parc in Versailles on the forerunner of the later Palace of Versailles ( first Versailles ) initiated by Louis XIV . Boyceau laid the basic structure of the garden here, which André Le Nôtre tied to in order to create one of the largest gardens in the world. To do this, he took up Boyceau's basic principle of spacious garden staging while at the same time harmonizing the individual elements so as not to make the monumental design appear monotonous. Boyceau's richly ornamented broderie designs, which he introduced to garden art together with the brothers Claude Mollet and André Mollet , also contributed to the diversity .

Publications

• Traité du Jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art , Paris 1638
• Traité du Jardinage, qui enseigne les ouvrages qu'il faut faire pour avoir un jardin dans sa perfection; avec la manière de faire les pépinières, greffer, enter les arbres, […], et one instruction for faire de longues allées de promenade et bois taillis . Paris 1689 (new edition 1707).

literature

• Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer (Ed.): Nouvelle biography générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours . tape 7 . Paris 1853, Sp. 159 .
• Clemens Alexander Wimmer: History of the garden theory. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-01314-X , pp. 106–112.
• Michel Racine (Ed.): Créateurs de jardins et de paysages en France de la Renaissance aux XXIe siècle . tape 1 : De la Renaissance au début du XIXe siècle . Actes Sud, Arles 2001, ISBN 2-7427-3280-2 , pp. 32-37 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie in the catalog of the German National Library