This notepad is part of the complete line of products designed for the Palace of Versailles. The two Water Parterres appear to be an extension of the Palace façade. Modified several times, the Parterres did not take on their final form until 1685. The sculpted décor was designed and directed by Charles Le Brun – each pool is decorated with four reclining statues representing the rivers of France: the Loire and the Loiret, the Rhône and the Saône, the Seine and the Marne and the Garonne and the Dordogne, to which four nymphs and four groups of children were added. From 1687 and 1694, the Keller brothers, ironmasters, cast the models provided by sculptors such as Tuby and Coysevox in bronze at the Arsenal of Paris.

The Water Parterres cannot be separated from the two fountains, known as the Animal Combats, completed in 1687, which flanked the large stairway leading down to the Latona Fountain. Six allegorical statues decorated the whole: Air, Evening, Noon and Daybreak, Spring and Water. They were part of the “grande commande” for marble statues placed by Colbert in 1674.

Dimensions: 15 x 21 cm
64 lined pages
Wove paper