ABSTRACT
The geometric landscape represents a conscious and assertive human attitude toward the natural order. The seasons change, the years pass, plants and trees come and grow, but in the baroque pleasure garden, form continues relatively unscathed. In a garden such as Versailles or Vaux le Vicomte the juxtaposition of the heroic scale of the architecture, the architectonic landscape with its topiary, the less-formal natural elements, and the more natural plantings, creates an environmental ensemble in which the lords may comfortably live untouched. Payment must be made in care, and in the investigation and knowledge required to maintain landscape. Some landscapes are rhythmic and apparent, especially the French formal garden which pushes geometry, symmetry, and repetition to an extreme. In naturalistic landscapes the elements unfold, often in a choreographed sequence, so that prior segments of experience must be held in mind. The chapter suggests that the naturalistic gardens are not only equally formalistic, but actually more formalistic, at least in ideas.
