Parterre

パルテール（刺繍花壇） / 17th century– / Layout / Garden Styles

A flat bed in which clipped box embroiders arabesques into the ground. It was designed to be looked down on from the floors above, turning the ground into ornament and gardening into graphic design.

Parterre — Parterre at Vaux-le-Vicomte (CC0)
Parterre at Vaux-le-Vicomte (CC0) · CC0
Parterre — Parterre of the ornamental kitchen garden, Château de Villandry — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 · © Francisco Antunes
Parterre of the ornamental kitchen garden, Château de Villandry — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 · CC BY 2.0 · © Francisco Antunes

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Box arabesques
  • Gravel and turf as ground colors
  • Made for the view from above
  • Symmetrical development

Best used for

  • Designing a forecourt that will be seen from upper floors or a stair
  • Laying a pattern at an institutional entrance that holds all year

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Dictionary entry

Type
Keep the arabesque one constant width, set its crossings first
Composition
Develop symmetrically about the axis, close with a single border
Material
Clipped box as line, gravel, turf and sand as ground colors
Caution
Placed where nobody can look down on it, the pattern never reads and only expensive clipping remains, its point entirely lost.
Further study
broderie patterns / the Mollet dynasty / Victorian carpet bedding

Related entries

Often confused with

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/parterre
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[Parterre — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/parterre)
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