French: « Une composition d’ensemble au 17e siècle unissant le château, les jardins....English translation: A 17th century bird's eye view...[assuming that we are talking about the drawing/engraving] 
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| GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW) | | French term or phrase: | « Une composition d’ensemble au 17e siècle unissant le château, les jardins.... | | English translation: | A 17th century bird's eye view...[assuming that we are talking about the drawing/engraving] | | Entered by: | Christopher Crockett |
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French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Architecture | | French term or phrase: « Une composition d’ensemble au 17e siècle unissant le château, les jardins.... | | This is for a museum slide show describing the history of the Paris region. This sentence will be shown on-screen along with overhead views of the Versailles, Meudon, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Sceaux royal estates. My problem is the "composition d'ensemble" part. I take it that they mean these royal estates were "harmonious ensembles" grouping together the castle, garden and park. Any insight or ideas would be appreciated. |
| | Clarification request(s) and responseNajib Aloui: 9:11pm Jul 5, 2006: Bonsoir stestephe. Is the "harmonious composition" in the chateau landscape itself or in the film?
1015: 2:26pm Jul 6, 2006: In the chateau landscape - Hi, Thanks for your answer. The "harmonious composition" is in the chateau landscape itself. The idea being that chateau, garden and park form one "harmonious composition/ ensemble".
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| | A 17th century bird's eye view... | Explanation:
Sometimes hyphenated: bird's-eye view.
Note: it is best not to use "castle" for "château", in English. Check the Kudoz archives for numerous discussions of this problem.
In general, the English "castle" refers to a *fortified* structure or complex; while what you have here is a massive country house, mansion or palace, which can be referred to in English as a "chateau" (with or without the circumflex accent on the "a").
Versailles, is often referred to as "the palace of Versailles", but this would only be appropriate for royal residences of a certain type, and the other royal "estates" in your list are definitely "chateaux".
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Note added at 20 mins (2006-07-05 18:04:26 GMT)
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A "Bird's eye view" is generally understood to be rather comprehensive.
"A 17th c. bird's eye view of the chateau, gardens, etc."
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Note added at 23 mins (2006-07-05 18:07:20 GMT)
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I am assuming that what you have before your eyes looks something like this:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-7...
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Note added at 21 hrs (2006-07-06 15:04:00 GMT)
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Taking into account 1015's response to ganemo's question, I'm not sure how I'd describe the "composition d’ensemble" in this context.
Generally speaking, a painting (or even a sculpture) can have a "composition", but what we have here is an elaborately planned "estate", chateau, gardens, woodlands, all conceived as a landscape "ensemble" --but "ensemble" is not really a word which has sufficient currency in common English to be used here, I'm afraid.
Mmmm....
How about something like :
"Each of these estates [Versailles, Meudon, etc.] is characterised by the execution of an overall, comprehensive landscaped plan (so characteristic of the 17th century) which integrated the various elements of chateau, gardens, woods, [etc.]..."
Admittedly, this is a bit more than your text says, but I think that this is one of those cases where French can pack quite a lot more into a few words than can English. |
| Selected response from:
Christopher Crockett
United States
| Note from asker to answererSelected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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6 mins confidence:   |
2 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1 |
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The translation workplace 
