Gardens at Versailles
From 1663 onwards Le Nôtre was commissioned by Louis XIV to design the gardens at Versailles. Colbert, Superintendent of Buildings, was in charge of the building works; Le Brun, "", produced drawings for several of the statues and fountains; a little later the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart ordered decorations and built the Orangery. It was a huge enterprise whose progress the King followed very closely. Le Nôtre experimented with special background effects, optical illusions, contrasts of light and shade and perspective effects. He used water features to cleverly create tasteful reflections. The myth of Apollo, already a feature of the palace itself, was given particular pride of place in the gardens; amongst the pools where gushing fountains so impressed the people of the time. Fed by water from reservoirs and from the Seine pumped by the great Machine of Marly, a complex system of pipes and springs, the fountains burst into life on great occasions or during celebrations organised in this natural theatre fleetingly adorned for the occasion by the decorator Henri de Gissey.
