Ut pictura horti': Hubert Robert and the Bains d'Apollon at Versailles
Abstract
This dissertation is the study of the evolution of one monument that spans the history of the Petit Parc of Versailles from its inception under the reign of Louis XIV until the reign of Louis XVI. I focus on the Grotto of Thetis which was conceived in 1664 and remodeled as the bosquet of the Bains d'Apollon from 1777 until 1781. The framework is chronological and examines the Bains d'Apollon commission in light of the replantation of the Petit Parc of Versailles from 1774 until 1777. The major theme examines how in seventeenth garden theory, the garden was designed to give the illusion that art triumphed over nature, whereas in eighteenth century garden aesthetics, the material environment was manipulated to appear as if nature triumphed over art. The roots of the "contrived naturalism" of the Bains d'Apollon can be found in contemporary discussions of the picturesque. The opportunity to study the work of a landscape painter Hubert Robert (1733-1803) who became Dessinateur des Jardins du Roi, following the Bains d'Apollon project, provides a forum to re-examine the principles of French picturesque garden theory. I argue that the picturesque is not the product of an interaction between the two arts, but rather the product of a parallel development which is predicated on the recognition and appreciation of artifice in opposition to nature and shared by both art forms. The ramifications of picturesque garden theory are interpreted in the iconography of the Bains d'Apollon. When Hubert Robert was given the commission to create a new setting for Girardon's sculptures of Apollo Attended by the Nymphs of Thetis, the monument was designed to recall the earlier history of the Grotto of Thetis. Robert's artificial rocher exploited the myth of Mount Parnassus: Louis XVI, like his great grandfather, would bring the arts and sciences to Versailles. However, the contrived naturalism of the Bains d'Apollon stressed man's harmony with nature thus mitigating the allegorical message and its potential political power.
Recommended Citation
Susan B Taylor,
"Ut pictura horti': Hubert Robert and the Bains d'Apollon at Versailles"
(January 1, 1990).
Dissertations available from ProQuest.
Paper AAI9026660.
http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9026660
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