Dome

View looking towards the palace colonnade, from the west garden; The gardens of the Grand Trianon have largely preserved the layout designed in 1667-1668. They lie along an east-west axis leading from the peristyle, with a high parterre with two pools, dropping to the low parterre, which leads to the large Bassin du Plat-Fond or Miroir. When the Grand Trianon itself was built, the plans for the garden were entrusted to Le Nôtre, then, at his death in 1700, to Hardouin Mansart, who finished planting the bosquets. From that time the garden developed northwards in a formal sequence comprising the Buffet d'Eau, the Jardin des Marronniers, the Amphithéâtre des Antiques and many 'Salles Vertes'. At the end of the Trianon-sous-Bois wing the Jardin de Laocöon leads back to the former Jardin des Sources (destroyed 1776) and the Jardin du Roi. The sculptural decoration of the Trianon gardens was installed by Hardouin Mansart from 1704: the sculptures for the water-basins are mostly reused from the Bassins des Saisons in the grounds of Versailles. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 2/10/2008)