Plan of the Labyrinth of Versailles

The artwork

That trail of dots winding between the hedges, from number 1 at the top right to 39 at the bottom left, is the route past 39 fountains, each with one of Aesop's fables. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The Labyrinth of Versailles from above, with the 39 fountains of Aesop's fables.
• In a hallway or a child's room it becomes a game for everyone.
• A gift for anyone who loves gardens and fables.

The labyrinth had been laid out by André Le Nôtre; the idea of filling it with fables, to make it an open-air lesson for the Dauphin, came from Charles Perrault, the author of Cinderella. In each fountain painted lead animals, designed by Charles Le Brun, acted out the fable with jets of water from their mouths, and a plaque carried four lines by the court poet Isaac de Benserade. It is said that the Dauphin learned to read from those very plaques. In his guidebook Perrault reassured visitors: anyone who got lost in there got pleasantly lost. In 1775, during the great replanting of the gardens ordered by Louis XVI, the labyrinth was dismantled.

This plan, the “Plan du Labirinthe de Versailles”, was published by Nicolas de Fer in his Atlas Curieux: at the bottom right, under the title, are his name and the date 1715, sixty years before the labyrinth was demolished. It is a bird's-eye engraving, with the hedges and the water jets drawn one by one. At the top right a label marks the entrance, “where the figures of Aesop and Prudence stand”; at the bottom left, the exit. The copy reproduced is held in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

For anyone who loves gardens it is a gift to look at for a long time; in a home where a child is learning to read, or hung in a hallway, it becomes a game for everyone. From 1 to 39, the dots work like Ariadne's thread, one fable after another.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass