Techniques of Creating Optical Effects of Three-dimensional construction, plane composition and constructs at the Gardens of Versailles

Abstract

This research goes beyond previously existing research in classifying the visual effects techniques employed at the Gardens of Versailles; the research is based on new on-site confirmation of the effects, and it also details some newly discovered visual effects techniques. The following three points have been made clear. First, looking west from the terrace above the Latona Fountain, the three vanishing points of the lines of perspective of the Latona flower beds, the Royal Way (the Green Carpet), and the Grand Canal, respectively, appear to gradually climb higher and higher, due to the difference between the slope of the land and the slope of the surface of the water, and this evokes an impressive soaring sensation. Second, the two pieces of land at the front slope downwards, and the Grand Canal is flat, but the illusion of an intersecting slope causes the surface of the water of the Grand Canal to appear to be facing forwards and rising up, in an extremely striking visual effect. Third, we can assume that Le Nôtre composed these effects deliberately.