Paradigms and Purposes: The Idea of Beauty Through Gardening and Symmetry

I think Freeland was right to choose gardening as one of the forms of art that helped to shape the Western world. As Horace Walpole put it, gardening is one of the “three sisters of graces”. Gardening is a wonderful way to take your mind off of the stresses in life and express yourself in a healthy, constructive way. One of the most famous and arguably most incredible gardens, are the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

I have never personally gone to see the gardens or the palace at Versailles, but I would like to some day. From the pictures I’ve seen and what I’ve read about them, it sounds like an amazing place. André Le Nôtre, the chief designer of the gardens, did a superb job over the course of the fifty some years he put into the project. It’s hard to believe that the gardens of Versailles contain 200,000 trees, 210,000 flowers, and 50 fountains. One would imagine such a garden to be substantially cluttered and in disarray, but the gardens of Versailles aren’t at all. In fact, they were designed with symmetry and perfection in mind. Louis XIV used the gardens as a display of his absolute power during his reign. The seer vastness of them signified Louis’ dominance over everything. Yet the gardens acted as more than just a political statement.

Kant saw gardening as a perfect example of “purposiveness without a purpose”. In other words, gardens such as those found at Versailles, existed solely for beauty and not for growing fruit or vegetables. He agreed that it was a little strange to consider gardening as art, but when one takes into account the “free play of imagination”, it is undeniable. The symmetry and excellent form used by Le Nôtre produced what Kant referred to as “a harmony of faculties”. He believed that this is what causes people to view gardens as beautiful and I absolutely agree. I think the prettiest of art plays off of symmetry. This is especially the case with gardening. I find that the closer each side of the reflection is to matching the other, the more incredible the overall picture. It takes a great deal of skill and technique to make one half of a garden grow in the exact same manner as the other. Clearly Le Nôtre was a master at his craft. I really hope that I’ll get a chance to visit France one day, and see the palace at Versailles and the beautiful work of art growing around it.