Very little development in gardens took place in Europe for several centuries following the end of the Roman Empire. It is thought that knowledge of horticulture virtually died out and only those plants which managed to naturalize themselves survived. However it is known that leeks, cabbages and dried beans and peas formed some sort of subsistence diet throughout this time.
During the sixteenth century the initiative passed to Rome, where the architect Bramante designed a papal garden within the Vatican. This was the forerunner of the High Renaissance style, with a magnificent arrangement of steps and terraces, which became a prototype for everything which followed. From then on gardens became even more ostentatious in design, with terraces at different levels retained by walls and interconnected by grand staircases. Water again became a major feature, as it was in Islamic gardens. It was pressurized and used spectacularly, progressing down an incline or displayed in an elaborate fountain. While these Renaissance gardens were still places for cool retreat, with shade and water of great importance, they were also showplaces where the site and its vegetation were deliberately manipulated. The Italians were really the first to make decorative use of plants, with hedges, for example, used to link the house and garden structurally. The Renaissance movement originating in Italy spread northwards, together with increased knowledge about plants and their cultivation. In France the small formal gardens within the walls of mowed chateaux moved outside, becoming much grander in scope.
Unlike the Italian hillside gardens, the French ones were flat and straight, most of them situated in the fiat marshy areas to the south and west of Paris. The style was still very geometric, as the original pattern of formal beds within a grid system of paths was simply repeated in order to enlarge the garden.
As times became more peaceful throughout Europe the defence walls were lowered, the garden area grew larger and a simple formal design developed.
Parterres were both larger in scale and more intricate in detail than earlier knot gardens. Another distinctive characteristic was the hedge- lined avenues which fanned out through the surrounding forest known as patter d'oi (goose feet). Le I\16tre was appointed royal gardener to Louis XIV and the garden at Versailles is probably his best known creation. In concept it was a vast outdoor drawing room, intended for the entertainment of a court of thousands.
Though most of Le Mitre's gardens were unashamedly for show they were still not places for colour or floral display; canalized and playing water, clipped and trained vegetation, statuary and the elaborate parterres provided the visual interest, along with the people walking about in them. This stylized layout, originally designed for large chateaux, was adapted to the quite humble manor house. Like the grand Italian gardens, as they became out of scale with the use of the individual, a smaller secret garden had to be created within them for family use.
During the sixteenth century the initiative passed to Rome, where the architect Bramante designed a papal garden within the Vatican. This was the forerunner of the High Renaissance style, with a magnificent arrangement of steps and terraces, which became a prototype for everything which followed. From then on gardens became even more ostentatious in design, with terraces at different levels retained by walls and interconnected by grand staircases. Water again became a major feature, as it was in Islamic gardens. It was pressurized and used spectacularly, progressing down an incline or displayed in an elaborate fountain. While these Renaissance gardens were still places for cool retreat, with shade and water of great importance, they were also showplaces where the site and its vegetation were deliberately manipulated. The Italians were really the first to make decorative use of plants, with hedges, for example, used to link the house and garden structurally. The Renaissance movement originating in Italy spread northwards, together with increased knowledge about plants and their cultivation. In France the small formal gardens within the walls of mowed chateaux moved outside, becoming much grander in scope.
Unlike the Italian hillside gardens, the French ones were flat and straight, most of them situated in the fiat marshy areas to the south and west of Paris. The style was still very geometric, as the original pattern of formal beds within a grid system of paths was simply repeated in order to enlarge the garden.
As times became more peaceful throughout Europe the defence walls were lowered, the garden area grew larger and a simple formal design developed.
Parterres were both larger in scale and more intricate in detail than earlier knot gardens. Another distinctive characteristic was the hedge- lined avenues which fanned out through the surrounding forest known as patter d'oi (goose feet). Le I\16tre was appointed royal gardener to Louis XIV and the garden at Versailles is probably his best known creation. In concept it was a vast outdoor drawing room, intended for the entertainment of a court of thousands.
Though most of Le Mitre's gardens were unashamedly for show they were still not places for colour or floral display; canalized and playing water, clipped and trained vegetation, statuary and the elaborate parterres provided the visual interest, along with the people walking about in them. This stylized layout, originally designed for large chateaux, was adapted to the quite humble manor house. Like the grand Italian gardens, as they became out of scale with the use of the individual, a smaller secret garden had to be created within them for family use.
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