Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch 1629-1684 paints City Gardens & Courtyards

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch artist, 1629-1684) Skittle Players in a Garden

Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch 1629-1684 paints City Gardens & Courtyards

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch artist, 1629-1684) A Dutch Courtyard

A Garden in the Background - Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632)

Hendrick van Balen or Hendrick van Balen I (1574-5-1632) was a Flemish Baroque artist. He was one of the teachers of Anthony van Dyck. Van Balen collaborated with artists such as Joos of Momper, Gaspar de Witte, Jan Brueghel the Elder  and Jan Brueghel the Younger, and Rubens.  From 1595 until 1602 he studied art during a trip in Italy. Although there is no official record of his trip to Italy, to his return to Antwerp, he became a member of the guild Romanistics. There the condition was that members of this guild have visited Rome. In 1613, he was elected dean of the guild.

Hendrick van Balen (Dutch, c 1574-5-1632)  Vertumnus und Pomona  In this painting, flowers in pots appear to have been especially popular, both indoors & out. Potted plants & trees are depicted placed on top of balustrads, grassy beds, & terraces in gardens & entryways--some of these may have been tender perennials or fruit trees. Plants in pots were used both outdoors or in the house (See The Italian Renaissance Interior: 1400-1600, by Peter Thornton, Abrams 1991)

As in these paintings, allegorical characters in stories & in art of this period were often located in garden settings. The locus amoenus was one of the traditional locations of epic & chivalric literature. As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose & verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of Medieval & Early Modern Europe.  Locus amoenus (Latin for "pleasant place") is a literary term which generally referring to an idealized place of safety or comfort, usually a beautiful, shady parkland or open woods, sometimes with connotations of Eden. A locus amoenus usually has 3 basic elements: trees, grass, & water. 

Often, the locus amoenus garden will be in a remote setting & with only components or suggestions of a more formal, geometric, walled garden. In some works, such gardens also have overtones of the regenerative powers of human sexuality marked out by flowers, & goddesses of springtime, love, & fertility. Ernst Robert Curtius formulated the concept's definition in his European Literature & the Latin Middle Ages (1953). 

17C Overview of Dutch Baroque Gardens - Enghien

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) Across the Reservoir to the Garden Gates at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

The famous Park of Enghien (in the Wallonian province of Henaut - to its south lies the French Nord region, within Belgium, it borders on the Flemish provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant, & the Walloon provinces of Walloon Brabant & Namur.) dates back to the 15C, when Pierre de Luxembourg transformed the forests ajacent to his chateau into a park. Two hundred years later, in the year 1607, chateau & park were sold by the then owner Henry IV (1553-1610) to a noble family named Arenberg.

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) An Avenue or Mall of Clipped Hedges at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

In the 15C, Pierre de Luxembourg had laid out the boundaries of a park in the forest surrounding his small castle in Enghien (Anguien), near Brussels in Belgium. By the time the estate had been acquired by the aristocratic Arenberg family, the park already contained jousting fields, a menagerie, game reserves, flower gardens, & irrigation systems.

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) Fountain surrounded by clipped green hedges at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

A transitional Renaissance-Baroque garden at Enghien evolved during the 1620s-1650s, guided by the elaborate landscape & architectural design choices of Le Père Charles de Bruxelles (Arenberg family member & architect). They combined French & Italian influences. Elements were grouped around a French style central axis. They included formal parterres adorned with classical statuary, tree-lined avenues, an orangery, a large Italian-style viewing mound, a grand pavilion on an island surrounded by imitation bastions, an ornate sculptured fountain in the middle of a reservoir, a small terraced garden on an Italian-style artificial island, & a series of more traditional European gardens surrounded by hedged tunnels.

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) Main Entrance to the Garden Park at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

In the British Library introduction to Dutch Baroque Gardens, the curators write, "The seventeenth century saw the greatest flowering of Dutch civilisation, not least in the field of printed maps & views. Professional artists, called afsetters, were employed to colour them. They had ideal opportunities to display their skills with these prints, some of which were engraved by...Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708). (The etched engravings were produced in about 1680, commissioned from Romeyn de Hooghe by the Amsterdam map dealer & publisher, Nicolaes Visscher II.)

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) Pavilion at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

"The cost of employing de Hooghe & the afsetters was felt to be justified for the gardens since they too were an important aspect of Dutch baroque culture. Though inspired by French & ultimately Italian models, the Dutch took advantage of their climate & landscape to amend the foreign models. Building on their own experience of land reclamation & canal-making, they disciplined & improved on nature. They made plentiful use of water, by way of ponds, canals & moats. Using hedges, often cut into spectacular shapes, they created a series of outdoor green "rooms" or "cabinets", palaces, theatres & stage sets. Unlike the prevailing, unadorned green of Italian formal gardens, the Dutch created beds or parterres filled with the vivid colours & the beautiful scents of flowers, sometimes supplemented with coloured stones. Unlike their French counterparts, Dutch gardens fitted into their landscapes & did not dominate them.

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Allees at the Grand Pavilion at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

"They made plentiful use of water, by way of ponds, canals & moats. Using hedges, often cut into spectacular shapes, they created a series of outdoor green 'rooms' or 'cabinets,' palaces, theatres & stage sets. Unlike the prevailing, unadorned green of Italian formal gardens, the Dutch created beds or parterres filled with the vivid colours & the beautiful scents of flowers, sometimes supplemented with coloured stones. Unlike their French counterparts, Dutch gardens fitted into their landscapes & did not dominate them.

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Flower Gardens at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

"The design of the gardens embraced sophisticated intellectual allegories deriving from classical legends & philosophy & they were created in accordance with the rules of architecture & logic. As well as pleasing the eyes, the gardens were also intended to appeal to the mind, their designs symbolising the earthly paradise & being intended to impart moral & philosophical lessons to the select few who understood them. Political often co-existed with philosophical symbolism, & many Dutch gardens were platforms for political propaganda that was all the more effective for being relatively subtle."

17C Gardens - Enghien - Orangerie

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Organgerie at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault

Orangeries 1st first began to appear as an element of landscape design in the Renaissance gardens of Italy as large panels of protective glass began to be manufactured there. Soon, orangeries became a staple of the Dutch baroque gardens (often built in glass-enclosed hot-houses or warmed with stove fires to protect against the harshness of Northern European winters) & often were associated with the legendary gardens of the Hesperides, where the Greek hero Hercules received the golden apples as reward for his virtues. Here a fountain displaysthe Three Graces. Like Hercules, the Graces were the illegitimate children of Zeus, the King of the Gods. While Hercules epitomised strength, the Graces - Euphrosyne, Aglaea and Thalia - were represented beauty, grace & wisdom.

17C Gardens - Enghien - Grotto Fountain

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Grotto Fountain at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault. With this grotto fountain, the garden architect tried to invoke an imaginary, yet natural, world of stones, shells, & water. Grottos were an attempt to imitate nature & were linked with classical ideas about the natural world, art, & love.

17C Gardens - Enghien - Greek Mount of Parnassus

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) a model Greek Mountain of Parnassus at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault. This parkcontained a model of the Greek Mountain of Parnassus from antiquity dedicated to Apollo and the Muses, which was the traditional home of poetry & music. Deer are being hunted at the foot of this "mountain."

17C Gardens - Enghien - Clipped hedges & Orange trees

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) Hedges clipped to form partitions or screens at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault. the hedges have been clipped to form screens, foliage tunnels, & an obelisk. The mature orange trees in the foreground are laden with fruit which is being picked, & a small tree is being ceremoniously presented to a lady & her entourage.

17C Gardens - Enghien - Italian-Style Island Garden

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Italian Style Island Garden at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault. The grand entrance to the Italian-style island garden. Visitors are stepping onto the island from a small boat. 

17C Gardens - Enghien - Orchards, Vegetable & Spice Gardens

Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch artist, 1645-1708) The Orchard, Vegetable, & Spice Gardens at the Renaissance gardens at Enghien near Hainault. The most practical component of gardens produced food.  Orchard, vegetable, & spice gardens formed an integral part of Enghien park estate. These garden segments were separated by formal, decorative high green hedges & were built on both sides of the entrance ways to the park. 

Garden & Grounds to attract a Queen - Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire

Kenilworth Castle dated 1620 by Unknown Artist

David Wilkes for the Daily Mail, London, 4 September 2014

Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire was "Built to woo the Virgin Queen... There is no doubt the views from the top of the 100ft tower, which boasts what were then the biggest glass windows in a secular building in Tudor England, are impressive enough to make you go weak at the knees.

"Whether they also made Queen Elizabeth I swoon into the arms of her favourite Robert Dudley in the spectacular quarters he created for her exclusive use at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire remains a mystery as intriguing as the rest of their relationship.

"There was, believes the Head Curator at the castle, Dr. Jeremy Ashbee, an antechamber between the two sets of rooms where Dudley, the handsome and flamboyant Earl of Leicester, could well have ‘lurked’ until Elizabeth was free of other company before popping in to see her alone. From there it is just a few short steps into the regal boudoir, where no one was normally allowed except the Queen and her ladies in waiting.

"We do not know whether their relationship was ever physical,’ said Dr Ashbee. ‘But they had known each since childhood, shared passions for riding and dancing, and it was no secret in Court circles that he was a suitor for the queen’s hand in marriage. Indeed, Dudley built the tower expressly to win her hand...’

"Their relationship - portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes in the 1998 film Elizabeth - was much talked about after Dudley’s first wife Amy broke her neck and died after apparently falling down the stairs at Cumnor Place, Berkshire, in 1560.

"Debate raged over whether Dudley had got rid of her as an obstacle to his relationship with the monarch. Dudley, who was also the Master of the Horse, overseeing all the queen’s equestrian needs for travel and hunting, was granted Kenilworth Castle by Elizabeth I in 1563.

"At a cost equivalent to tens of millions of pounds in today’s money, he began building the tower for her there in 1570. Elizabeth stayed at the castle 4 times during her summer ‘progresses’ away from London. Her last visit in 1575 caused particularly intense speculation about their relationship as she stayed for 19 days from July 9 to 27 - the longest she ever stayed at any courtier’s house.

"Dr Ashbee said: ‘We know from documentary evidence when the tower was built was right in the middle of the period when Dudley was getting her to come there. People referred to it as ‘the Queen’s lodge.' ‘She was 41 and he 42 during the 1575 visit and it has long been thought this was his last throw of the dice to get her to marry him. He even commissioned portraits of the queen and himself specifically for that visit, which might have been intended to hang in the dancing chamber above her bedroom.,,’

"Dudley failed, however, to win the queen’s hand, his chances having probably not been helped by him fathering an illegitimate son by Lady Sheffield in 1574. Elizabeth never returned to Kenilworth and he married Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex, in 1578.

"But the queen evidently retained an affection for him and kept a letter he wrote to her shortly before his death in 1588. Its contents were mere pleasantries, but she wrote on the back ‘His last letter’ and kept it in a casket of treasured possessions by her bed until her death in 1603."

1625 Gardener

1625 Jacques Callot (Print made by) French - Gardener

Bathing in Garden Parks in 17C-18C Europe

Jan Frans van Bloemen (Flemish artist, 1652-1749) A Classical Landscape with Ladies Bathing near a Fountain

 Nicolas Lancret (French artist, 1690-1743) Women Bathing

Jean-Baptiste Pater (French artist, 1695–1736) Bathing Party in a Park 1730s

Joseph Frans Nollekens (Flemish artist, 1706-1748) Park Scene with Ladies Bathing

Georg Heinrich Hergenröder (German artist, 1736-1794) Ladies Bathing at Garden Terrace

1625 Preparing the Flower Beds

Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 - 1638) Preparing the Flower Beds 1625

1625 A Garden in the Background - 17C Dutch Girl

1625 Unknown Artist of the Dutch school, Girl with cherries & doll.  She is on the verge of nature, but it is nature controlled as a formal garden.