Techniques for interactive scene graph manipulation for visualization authoring are described. In implementations, visual marks are grouped into containers. Each container includes layout settings independent of other containers, and the layout settings are individually adjustable. The visual marks are configured to represent data values. Additionally, the containers are nested in a hierarchy. Then, data visualizations are constructed for display via a user interface of a display device. For example, the data visualizations can be constructed by applying data values to the visual marks and layout settings of the containers to the visual marks grouped within the nested containers to generate the data visualizations.