Versailles

In this sumptuous book, Stephane Pincas takes us on a unique guided tour in time and space, vividly recreating the whole history of the gardens. Through the upper garden, the great central axis and the lower garden - echoing the route taken by the Sun King himself - we explore parterres, fountains, and the fantastical open-air rooms of the bosquets, discovering every feature that remains or once had its place there. Assembling paintings, sculptures now in museums, historical documents and prints (including brilliant illustrations of the Labyrinth prepared for Louis XIV, never reproduced in colour before), and superb specially-taken photographs, Versailles: The History of the Gardens and their Sculpture is the most detailed pictorial account ever published of one of the greatest of all total works of art.