Patent ID: 8264647

Claim:
An image display apparatus comprising: a liquid crystal panel having a liquid crystal layer disposed between a pair of substrates; and an optical compensation plate pair including a first optical compensation plate and a second optical compensation plate, the first optical compensation plate being a C-plate formed of a negative uniaxial crystal and the second optical compensation plate being a C-plate formed of a positive uniaxial crystal, wherein, the first optical compensation plate has a first optical phase difference, the second optical compensation plate has a second optical phase difference, the liquid crystal panel has a third optical phase difference, a fourth optical phase difference caused by a difference in thickness between the first optical compensation plate and the second optical compensation plate cancels the third optical phase difference of the liquid crystal panel, a thickness of the liquid crystal panel, the first optical compensation plate, and the second compensation plate are such that a sum of magnitudes of the third optical phase difference of the liquid crystal panel and the second optical phase difference of the compensation plate is equal to a magnitude of the first optical phase difference of the first optical compensation plate, and at least one of the first optical compensation plate and the second optical compensation plate has an optical axis inclined in a direction which coincides with an inclination direction of a predetermined pretilt angle of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer.