Origins

• Gardens across 17th-century Europe were heavily influenced by the gardens of Versailles, the most luxurious palace of Europe and seat of the French court. The gardeners of Versailles, in turn, refined and codified design philosophies, which had existed for centuries in the principalities of Italy. The emphasis was on a geometric and symmetrical design with rigid compartmentalization of plants, paths and ornamentation, with no attempt made to mimic natural landscapes.
  
  

Nature and Romanticism

• The French school of garden design, which dominated the continent until the beginning of the 18th century, was based on a Romantic view of nature. Humanity's dominance over nature was openly displayed. Nature was allowed to add a few touches of the sublime, mostly where the chaos of water features and fountains counterbalanced the geometric precision of flower beds, hedges and paths. Exotic animals, plants and artifacts formed a tribute to fashionable Orientalism, as did Chinese touches such as miniature pagodas and bridges.
  
  

Garden Layout and Design

• Seventeenth-century gardens were carefully divided into broad paths, laid out in straight lines or regular curves, which were broken up by equally geometric flower beds, rockeries and hedges. Water features were similarly regular, generally consisting of fountains, shallow reflecting pools and canal-straight streams. Symmetry was very important, and most gardens displayed overall radial and bilateral symmetry, with individual sections showing distinct internal symmetry of their own. The centerpiece of the garden was almost always a structure, which ranged from a simple gazebo to a suite of apartments the size of a small manor.
  
  

Ornament and Exotica

• If a path came to an end in a 17th-century garden, there was almost always some form of display to mark it. Sculptures, fountains and urns were very popular, as were large landscape paintings designed to appear as part of the background. Some of the larger and more expensive gardens even contained aviaries or menageries, displaying exotic birds and animals in an age where no public zoos existed.