Pacello da Mercogliano

Pacello da Mercogliano , real name Pacello Mazzarotta, (* around 1455 in Mercogliano , Italy, †  1534 in Amboise , France), also called Pierre da Mercogliano and Dom Passolo , was an Italian priest who worked as a garden designer and landscape architect under the French kings Karl VIII. And Louis XII. worked. It was with him that the tradition of the Italian Renaissance gardens began in the castle complexes of the Loire Valley , the design of which had a decisive influence on the French baroque gardens that later became fashionable .

Life

Pacello was a clergyman and came from the Italian Mercogliano near Avellino . At the end of the 15th century he worked for Alfonso II in Naples , where he designed the gardens of the Poggio Reale and Duchesca villas .

After conquering the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII was so enthusiastic about the city's parks that he took its designer Pacello with him to France in 1495, along with 22 other Italian artists and craftsmen. Da Mercogliano held the title jardinier du roi there and from 1498, together with the brothers Antonio and Giovanni Guisti, designed the first Renaissance garden in France for the Amboise Castle .

After the sudden death of Charles VIII, his successor Louis XII occupied him. continue in Blois . In addition to his annual salary of 375  ducats , he also received a parish charter when Ludwig appointed him canon of the collegiate church of Saint-Sauveur in Blois on June 22, 1503 . He designed the complex hydraulic system that supplied the Blois Castle Gardens together with Fra Giovanni Giocondo , with whom he had already worked in Amboise.

From 1502 the Italian worked for Ludwig's minister, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise , who, together with Gaillon, had a palace complex based on the model of the royal residences.

Pacello da Mercogliano spent his last years on the Château-Gaillard estate in Amboise, whose garden he also designed and where he died in 1534.

Works and Influence

From 1499 Pacello da Mercogliano designed the lavish gardens of the castle in Blois; Engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, around 1575

Pacello da Mercogliano introduced the principle of symmetrically designed gardens in France in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. They are therefore called "Italian gardens" or "Italian style gardens" after the country of origin of their designer. Since the baroque parks later developed from these gardens, the Italian is considered the spiritual father of baroque gardens. A large number of innovations in French gardening can be traced back to him. So he was the one who first laid out parterres in gardens and built pavilions in them. Together with an Italian compatriot, he was responsible for complex, hydraulic systems, which for the first time not only served for irrigation, but also supplied decorative water features and fountains. Pacello da Mercogliano was also the first landscaper to use citrus trees in mobile planters so that they could be brought to an orangery for winter .

However, most of the gardens he designed have been destroyed and disappeared over time. Their appearance is only known from engravings by Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau , who recorded numerous French palace complexes and gardens in his two-volume work Les plus excellents Bastiments de France .

The gardens of the following complexes were among the most famous works by da Mercogliano:

• Villa Poggio Reale
• Villa Duchesca
• Amboise Castle; from 1495, first Renaissance garden in France
• Blois Castle; from 1499
• Gaillon Palace; from 1502

literature

• Pierre Lesueur: Pacello da Mercogliano et les jardins d'Amboise, Blois et Gaillon . In: Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français . No. 1, 1935, pp. 90-117.
• Margherita De Luca: La villa della Duchesca attraverso le fonti . Università degli Studi di Napoli, Naples 2000/2001 ( excerpt as PDF; 59 kB ).
• Giovanni Mongelli: Pacello da Mercogliano. Architetto giardiniere del periodo del Rinascimento . In: Samnium. Rivista storica trimestrale . Vol. 49, No. 1/2, 1976, ISSN  0391-8718 , pp. 63-64.
• Francesco Zecchino: Pacello da Mercogliano giardiniere alla corte di Francia . Elio Sellino, Avellino 2004, ISBN 88-88991-14-X .
• Orti di Corte. Pacello da Mercogliano: Il Giardini Reali e le Erbe del Partenio . Mercogliano 2010, pp. 21-34 ( digitized version ).

Footnotes

1. ^ Orti di Corte. Pacello da Mercogliano: Il Giardini Reali e le Erbe del Partenio , p. 21.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Béatrice de Andia: Créer un jardin en Touraine . Académie des beaux-arts, Paris 2004, ISSN  0768-2050 , p. 9 ( PDF; 159 kB ).
3. ↑ Jean-Martin Demézil: Amboise. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Center, Val de Loire. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-018538-2 , p. 105.
4. ^ Dietrich Erben: Paris and Rome. The state-controlled art relations under Louis XIV . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-003851-9 , p. 4 ( digitized version ).
5. ↑ Louis-Augustin Bossebœuf: Amboise. Le château, la ville et le canton. L. Péricat, Tours 1897, p. 189 ( digitized version ).
6. ↑ Flaviano Di Grezia: Pacello da Mercogliano  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , As of May 28, 2009 (page can no longer be accessed)  
7. ^ William A. Mann: Landscape Architecture. An Illustrated History in Timelines, Site Plans, and Biography . John Wiley and Sons, New York [u. a.] 1993, ISBN 0-471-59465-2 , p. 360 ( digitized version ).
8. ↑ Lucie Gaugain: Amboise. A chateau in the ville. Presses universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2014, ISBN 978-2-86906-374-7 , p. 107.
9. ↑ The authorship of Pacello da Mercogliano has not yet been proven by contemporary documents, although the majority of the Amboise castle gardens are ascribed to him.