Temple of Love

At around 1770, new attitude toward gardens emerged. Gone were lines of tall trees framing fine horizontal perspectives of trimmed box hedges and embroidery-like flowerbeds. In 1775, Richard Mique erected a circular temple in the landscape garden at the Petit Trianon. Featuring twenty-two fluted Corinthian columns, fine decoration, and a copy of Bouchardon’s Cupid Making his Bow out of the Club of Hercules, Mique’s creation became known as the Temple of Love. This jewel heralded a new setting; the Hameau and its pseudo-rustic setting that Mique composed for Marie-Antoinette in 1782-85 represents the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new era.