The Petit Trianon in Versailles: The Virtual, an Historic Reality

Abstract

It is difficult to grasp the complex history of the successive changes made to the furnishings and to the layout of the Petit Trianon. Our ongoing project addresses this challenge. Based on 3D digitizing, high photorealistic rendering, real-time visualization and spatio-temporal data structuring, our approach provides more than a straightforward 3D model of the rooms : it ensures that the content of the rooms is not fixed in its existing state, but enhanced based on additional perspectives. The refurnished virtual rooms are paradoxically more realistic. They are free from the limitations imposed by visitor traffic and security, and presented not in their current fragmentary state, but as a complete whole. Our data structuring method also enables to explore the successive changes to the furnishings over time (integrating furnitures conserved today in different Museums in the world), providing a dynamic vision of these spaces.