The Baroque Landscape: Andre Le Notre & Vaux-Le-Vicomte

Before Louis XIV earned his name as the Sun King who unified France and heralded the kingdom's Grand Siecle of art and architecture, his finance minister Nicolas Fouquet hired the rising designer Andre Le Notre to transform the gardens of his chateau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, 50km south of Paris. Le Notre's resulting masterpiece of sweeping, illusory vistas and geometrically harmonious lawn and embroidered parterres (closely cropped shrubs carved into fine, symmetric scrolls) immediately gained the designer notoriety and made Fouquet's home the most modern and fashionable of the 17th century. (Vaux-le-Vicomte greatly surpassed Versailles in opulence, and later became a model for transforming the king's""humble"" hunting lodge into a sprawling park and palace.) Full of details, history and lore, if rather haltingly strung together, art historian Brix's account of the Le Notre's achievement will delight lovers of this grand style. 150 color photographs.