chandeliers; portraits and other paintings; and a Museum of Flemish tapestries. Gardens Extending over , the gardens around the palace are one of the best examples of 18th-century European garden design in the Jardin à la française style in Spain. The French designer from the official French royal offices of Robert de Cotte was René Carlier, who used the natural slope of the site in the palace grounds design, for enhancing axial visual perspectives, and to provide sufficient head for water to shoot out/up from the twenty-six sculptural fountains in the formal gardens and landscape park. Sculptors arrived from Paris to execute designs on the site. They included: René Frémin (1672–1744, at La Granja until 1738), to whom the execution of many vases and sculptures was attributed in 18th-century inventories; Jean Thierry; and others who are little more than names in archival references. Fountains All of the fountains represent themes from classical mythology, including Greek deities, allegories and scenes from myths. They are cast in lead to prevent corrosion, and painted over to simulate bronze, a nobler material, or lacquered over white oxidised lead to imitate marble. A group of richly sculptural vases have been attributed to designs by the "dazzling maverick" Gilles-Marie Oppenord, which were probably forwarded through the offices of Robert de Cotte, overseeing French royal building projects as intendant des Bâtiments du Roi. Bruno Pons noted in the sculptural vases "an almost excessively brilliant style, quite distinct from French royal taste and showing an undeniably superior understanding of ornament". The "Baths of Diana" fountain is the focal point of several garden alleés, and was made from lead and then painted to look like bronze and marble. It and its marble statues form some of the most impressive and well conserved architecture from this period in Spain. Fremin, Thierry, and Bousseau led a team of sculptors who between 1720 and 1745 created this stunning feature, brought to life by the fountains' spectacular water displays. However, regarding the elaborate "Baths of Diana", the chronically depressed Philip remarked, "It has cost me three millions and amused me three minutes." The original waterworks and piping are still functional. They rely purely on gravity to project water up the fountain jets, including to the height of the "Fame" fountain. A reservoir, (the Sea), lies secluded at the highest point of the landscape park, and provides the supply and water pressure for the