Gezicht op het kasteel van Coulommiers-en-Brie aan de kant van de tuinen 1651

This is Israel Silvestre’s etching of the Château de Coulommiers-en-Brie, a vision rendered with ink on paper. Note how the artist meticulously renders the formal gardens; they are more than mere landscapes. Gardens like these, with their geometric precision and manicured nature, echo ancient notions of paradise and divine order, harking back to the legendary Gardens of Babylon. Over time, this imagery of the garden was reinterpreted, reflecting a human desire to tame and perfect nature. The very act of structuring a garden is an assertion of human intellect. This connects us to deep-seated archetypes about control and the longing for an ideal world, a dream that transcends civilizations. One might even argue that these gardens, and our emotional reactions to them, connect us to collective memories embedded within our subconscious, a symbol of humanity's ambition to shape the world. We see this non-linear progression repeated through history, each era imbuing it with new significance.