; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic
optical illusion
In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide varie ...
of
three-dimensional space
In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values ('' coordinates'') are required to determine the position of a point. Most commonly, it is the three- ...
and objects on a
two-dimensional
A two-dimensional space is a mathematical space with two dimensions, meaning points have two degrees of freedom: their locations can be locally described with two coordinates or they can move in two independent directions. Common two-dimension ...
surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving painted objects or spaces as real. Forced perspective is a related illusion in architecture.
History in painting
The phrase, which can also be spelled without the
hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation.
The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...
and
ligature Ligature may refer to:
Language
* Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy)
* Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words
Medicine
* Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...
in English as ''trompe l'oeil'', originates with the artist
Louis-Léopold Boilly
Louis-Léopold Boilly (; 5 July 1761 – 4 January 1845) was a French painter and draftsman. A creator of popular portrait paintings, he also produced a vast number of genre paintings documenting French middle-class social life. His life and work ...
, who used it as the title of a painting he exhibited in the
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
Salon of 1800. Although the term gained currency only in the early 19th century, the illusionistic technique associated with dates much further back. It was (and is) often employed in
mural
A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' ...
s. Instances from Greek and Roman times are known, for instance in
Pompeii
Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...
. A typical mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.
A version of an oft-told
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
story concerns a contest between two renowned painters. Zeuxis (born around 464 BC) produced a still life painting so convincing that birds flew down to peck at the painted grapes. A rival, Parrhasius, asked Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings that was behind a pair of tattered curtains in his study. Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to pull back the curtains, but when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains were included in Parrhasius's painting—making Parrhasius the winner.
Perspective
A fascination with
perspective drawing
Linear or point-projection perspective () is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of ...
arose during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
. But
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...
had begun using perspective at the end of the 13th century with the cycle of Assisi in Saint Francis stories. Many Italian painters of the late
Quattrocento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...
, such as
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...
(1431–1506) and
Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì ( – 8 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school.
Biography
Melozzo was s ...
fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
, that employed perspective and techniques such as
foreshortening
Linear or point-projection perspective () is one of two types of 3D projection, graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a fla ...
to create the impression of greater space for the viewer below. This type of illusionism as specifically applied to ceiling paintings is known as '' di sotto in sù'', meaning "from below, upward" in Italian. The elements above the viewer are rendered as if viewed from true vanishing point perspective. Well-known examples are the Camera degli Sposi in
Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...
and
Antonio da Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for so ...
Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo (also Iacopo) is a masculine Italian given name, derivant from Latin ''Iacōbus''. It is an Italian variant of Giacomo ( James in English).
* Jacopo Aconcio (), Italian religious reformer
* Jacopo Bassano (1592), Italian painter
* Iac ...
(c. 1440 – before 1516) added small trompe-l'œil features to their paintings, playfully exploring the boundary between image and reality. For example, a painted fly might appear to be sitting on the painting's frame, or a curtain might appear to partly conceal the painting, a piece of paper might appear to be attached to a board, or a person might appear to be climbing out of the painting altogether—all in reference to the contest of Zeuxis and Parrhasius.
Quadratura
Perspective theories in the 17th century allowed a more fully integrated approach to architectural illusion, which when used by painters to "open up" the space of a wall or ceiling is known as '' quadratura''. Examples include
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...
Palazzo Barberini
The Palazzo Barberini () is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
History
Around 1549 Cardinal ...
Mannerist
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...
and
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
style interiors of
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
churches in the 16th and 17th centuries often included such ceiling paintings, which optically "open" the ceiling or dome to the heavens with a depiction of Jesus', Mary's, or a saint's ascension or assumption. An example of a perfect architectural is the illusionistic dome in the Jesuit church, Vienna, by Andrea Pozzo, which is only slightly curved, but gives the impression of true architecture.
paintings became very popular in Flemish and later in Dutch painting in the 17th century arising from the development of still life painting. The Flemish painter Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts created a ''chantourné'' painting showing an easel holding a painting. ''Chantourné'' literally means 'cutout' and refers to a ''trompe-l'œil'' representation designed to stand away from a wall. The Dutch painter Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten was a master of the and theorized on the role of art as the lifelike imitation of nature in his 1678 book, the ''Introduction to the Academy of Painting, or the Visible World'' (''Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt'', Rotterdam, 1678).
A fanciful form of architectural , quodlibet, features realistically rendered paintings of such items as paper knives, playing cards, ribbons, and scissors, apparently accidentally left lying around.
can also be found painted on tables and other items of furniture, on which, for example, a deck of playing cards might appear to be sitting on the table. A particularly impressive example can be seen at
Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...
in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
, where one of the internal doors appears to have a violin and bow suspended from it, in a trompe-l'œil painted around 1723 by Jan van der Vaart. Another example can be found in the Painted Hall at the
Old Royal Naval College
The Old Royal Naval College are buildings that serve as the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ...
, Greenwich, London. This
Wren
Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...
building was painted by Sir James Thornhill, the first British born painter to be knighted and is a classic example of the Baroque style popular in the early 18th century. The American 19th-century still-life painter William Harnett specialized in .
In the 20th century, from the 1960s on, the American Richard Haas and many others painted large murals on the sides of city buildings. From the beginning of the 1980s when German artist Rainer Maria Latzke began to combine classical fresco art with contemporary content, became increasingly popular for interior murals. The Spanish painter
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
utilized the technique for a number of his paintings.
In other art forms
, in the form of " forced perspective", has long been used in stage-theater
set design
Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as prod ...
, so as to create the illusion of a much deeper space than the existing stage. A famous early example is the
Teatro Olimpico
The ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. It was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The ''trompe-l'œil'' onstag ...
in
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...
, with
Vincenzo Scamozzi
Vincenzo Scamozzi (2 September 1548 – 7 August 1616) was an Italians, Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. He was perhaps the most importan ...
's seven forced-perspective "streets" (1585), which appear to recede into the distance.
is employed in
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred, in succession, with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talki ...
's famous "Running up the wall" scene in the film ''
Singin' in the Rain
''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Rita Moreno a ...
'' (1952). During the finale of his "Make 'em Laugh" number he first runs up a real wall. Then he runs towards what appears to be a hallway, but when he runs up this as well we realize that it is a large mural. More recently,
Roy Andersson
Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedes, Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdism, absurdist humor and Melancholia, melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by ...
has made use of similar techniques in his feature films.
Matte painting
A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present at the filming location. Historically, matte painters and film technicia ...
is a variant of , and is used in film production with elements of a scene are painted on glass panels mounted in front of the camera.
Elsa Schiaparelli frequently made use of in her designs, most famously perhaps in her Bowknot Sweater, which some consider to be the first use of in fashion. The Tears Dress, which she did in collaboration with
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
, features both appliqué tears on the veil and ''trompe-l'œil'' tears on the dress itself.
Fictional'' trompe-l'œil'' appears in many
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
, such as the Road Runner cartoons, where, for example, Wile E. Coyote paints a tunnel on a rock wall, and Road Runner then races through the fake tunnel. This is usually followed by the coyote's foolishly trying to run through the tunnel after the road runner, only to smash into the hard rock-face. This sight gag was employed in ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
''.
In
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
's Near North Side, Richard Haas used a 16-story 1929 apartment hotel converted into a 1981 apartment building for murals in homage to Chicago school architecture. One of the building's sides features the Chicago Board of Trade Building, intended as a reflection of the building located two miles south.
Several contemporary artists use chalk on pavement or sidewalk to create works, a technique called street painting or "pavement art". These creations last only until washed away, and therefore must be photographed to be preserved. Practitioners of this form include Julian Beever, Edgar Mueller, Leon Keer, and Kurt Wenner.
The Palazzo Salis of
Tirano
Tirano (; ) is a town and (municipality) in Valtellina, located in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy (northern Italy). It has 9,053 inhabitants (2016) and is adjacent to the Italy–Switzerland border. The river Adda (river), Adda flows through ...
, Italy, has over centuries and throughout the palace used ''trompe-l'œil'' in place of more expensive real masonry, doors, staircases, balconies, and draperies to create an illusion of sumptuousness and opulence.
''Trompe-l'œil'' in the form of illusion architecture and Lüftlmalerei is common on façades in the Alpine region.
''Trompe-l'œil,'' in the form of "illusion painting", is also used in contemporary interior design, where illusionary wall paintings experienced a renaissance since around 1980. Significant artists in this field are the German muralist Rainer Maria Latzke, who invented, in the 1990s, a new method of producing illusion paintings,
frescography
Frescography (from Latin ''fresco'' – ''painting onto "fresh" plaster'' + Greek ''graphein'' – to write) is a method for producing murals digitally on paper, canvas, glass or tiles, invented in 1998 by German muralist Rainer Maria Latzke. Fr ...
OK Go
OK Go is an American Rock music, rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar, bass, backing vocalist, v ...
's music video for " The Writing's on the Wall" uses a number of illusions alongside other optical illusions, captured through a one-shot take. ''Trompe-l'œil '' illusions have been used as gameplay mechanics in video games such as '' The Witness'' and '' Superliminal''.
Japanese filmmaker and animator
Isao Takahata
was a Japanese director, screenwriter and producer. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he earned international critical acclaim for his work as a director of Japanese animated feature films. Born in Ujiyamada, Mie Prefecture, Takahata joined Toei ...
regarded achieving a sense of to be important for his work, stating that an animated world should feel as if it "existed right there" so that "people believe in a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
world and characters that no one has seen in reality."
Tourist attractions employing large-scale illusory art allowing visitors to photograph themselves in fantastic scenes have opened in several Asian countries, such as the Trickeye Museum and Hong Kong 3D Museum.
Recently a Trick Art Museum opened in Europe and uses more photographic approaches.
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante (1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rom ...
*
Petrus Christus
Petrus Christus (; 1410/1420 – c. 1475/1476) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and R ...
*
Antonio da Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for so ...
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain.
Early l ...
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...
*
Masaccio
Masaccio (, ; ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great List of Italian painters, Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaiss ...
*Jean-Francois de la Motte
*
Charles Willson Peale
Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist.
In 1775, inspired by the American Revolution, Peale moved from his native Maryland to Philadelphia, where he set ...
Vincenzo Scamozzi
Vincenzo Scamozzi (2 September 1548 – 7 August 1616) was an Italians, Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. He was perhaps the most importan ...
*
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; 5 March 1696 – 27 March 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an import ...
Louis-Léopold Boilly
Louis-Léopold Boilly (; 5 July 1761 – 4 January 1845) was a French painter and draftsman. A creator of popular portrait paintings, he also produced a vast number of genre paintings documenting French middle-class social life. His life and work ...
*
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
Dan Colen
Daniel Colen (born 1979) is an American artist based in New York. His work consists of painted sculptures appropriating low-cultural ephemera, graffiti-inspired paintings of text executed in paint, and installations.
Early life and education
Bor ...
Joanne Gair
Joanne Gair (born c. 1958), nicknamed Kiwi Jo (alternatively Kiwi Joe), is a New Zealand-born and -raised make-up artist and body painting, body painter whose body paintings have been featured in the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' from 1 ...
Jonty Hurwitz
Jonty Hurwitz (born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg) is a British South African artist, engineer and entrepreneur. Hurwitz creates scientifically inspired artworks and Anamorphosis, anamorphic sculptures. He is recognised for the smallest hum ...
István Orosz
István Orosz (born 24 October 1951) is a Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director. He is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphose ...
Os Gêmeos
OSGEMEOS (also known as Os Gemeos or Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for ''The Twins'') are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo (born 1974). They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in gal ...
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...
Petrus Christus
Petrus Christus (; 1410/1420 – c. 1475/1476) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and R ...
(1446). Note the fly near the bottom.
File:Jacopo de' Barbari 001.jpg, ''
Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets
''Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets'' is a 1504 painting by the Italian painter Jacopo de' Barbari. It measures and is held by the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The small oil painting, oil-on-tilia, limewood-panel painting is considered to ...
'' by
Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo (also Iacopo) is a masculine Italian given name, derivant from Latin ''Iacōbus''. It is an Italian variant of Giacomo ( James in English).
* Jacopo Aconcio (), Italian religious reformer
* Jacopo Bassano (1592), Italian painter
* Iac ...
, 1504. The first
still-life
A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...
trompe-l'œil since antiquity
File:Hungarian - Trompe-l'Oeil Stem of a Maltese Cross - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Trompe-l'Oeil stem of a Maltese Cross'' (1561) by
Joris Hoefnagel
Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542, in Antwerp – 24 July 1601, in Vienna) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish painter, printmaker, Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniaturist, draftsman and merchant. He is noted for his illustrat ...
File:Gerard Houckgeest 002.jpg, ''Church interior'' by Gerard Houckgeest (c. 1654)
File:Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts - Trompe l’oeil Studio Wall with a Vanitas Still Life.jpg, ''Trompe l'oeil Studio Wall with Vanitas Still Life'', Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, 1664
File:Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts - Trompe l'oeil. The Reverse of a Framed Painting - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The reverse of a framed painting'' by Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, 1670
File:Cornelis Biltius - Trompe l'oeil with a bird cage.jpg, ''Trompe l'oeil with a bird cage'', Cornelis Biltius, 1680s
File:Jean-François de Le Motte. Trompe-l'oeil.jpg, , Jean-François de Le Motte, 1680–1700
File:Nicola van Houbraken - Self-portrait.jpg, ''Portrait of François Rivière'' by Nicola van Houbraken, c. 1700
File:Carl Hofverberg - Trompe l´oeil 1737 - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Trompe l´oeil 1737'' by Carl Hofverberg
File:Jacobus Plasschaert - A 'trompe l'oeil' of a wooden panelling with a painted canvas of a landscape 'capriccio', a pile of prints with a repetition of the painted subject, an almanach, sealed letters.jpg, ''A 'trompe l'oeil' of a wooden panelling with a painted canvas of a landscape 'capriccio', a pile of prints with a repetition of the painted subject, an almanach, sealed letters and playing cards'', Jacobus Plasschaert, 1650s
File:Printed Pages, Trompe lOeil (Nicolaas de Wit) - Gothenburg Museum of Art - GKM 1072.tif, ''Printed Pages. Trompe l'œil'' by Nicolaas de Wit, 1740
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 066.jpg, ''Trompe l'œil'' by
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli ( ; ; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain.
Many of his successful works depict supernatural experiences, such as '' The Nightmare''. He pr ...
, 1750
File:Antonio Pérez de Aguilar - Cupboard - Google Art Project.jpg, Antonio Pérez de Aguilar, ''Cupboard'', c. 1769,
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
File:Paris louvre boilly trompe l'oeil.jpg, ''Trompe l'œil dit aux dessins et aux savoyards'' by
Louis-Léopold Boilly
Louis-Léopold Boilly (; 5 July 1761 – 4 January 1845) was a French painter and draftsman. A creator of popular portrait paintings, he also produced a vast number of genre paintings documenting French middle-class social life. His life and work ...
, c. 1804–1807
File:William Michael Harnett 001.jpg, ''The Faithful Colt'' 1890 by William Michael Harnett
File:Char side vieuw.jpg, ''Char de la Ville'' (photographed 2006)—the "sculpture" is a flat cutout
File:Theodor Pištěk, Josef N., (1978).jpg, Theodor Pištěk, Josef N., (1978), Art Library Project
File:Ceiling piece with birds, by Abraham Busschop.jpg, Ceiling piece with birds by Abraham Busschop, 1708
Murals
File:Théâtre Saint-Georges1.jpg, Complete
anamorphosis
Anamorphosis is a distorted projection that requires the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film speci ...
of the frontage of the Saint-Georges Theatre
Image:Mantegna.jpg, Oculus on the ceiling of the Spouses Chamber, castle of San Giorgio in
Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...
, Italy, by
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...
File:Brivio.church.cupola.jpg, cupola in the church of Brivio, Italy
File:Marolles1 (4889175932).jpg, Painted windows, Rue de l'Épée/Zwaardstraat,
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
Image:Le_pigeon.jpg, A of a pigeon on a window sill, façade mural, rue Emile Lepeu in the
11th arrondissement of Paris
The 11th arrondissement of Paris (''XIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is referred to as ''le onzième'' (; "the eleventh").
The ar ...
, France
Image:SchwetzingenSchlossgarten.jpg, Mural in
Schwetzingen
Schwetzingen (; ) is a German town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, around southwest of Heidelberg and southeast of Mannheim.
Schwetzingen is one of the five biggest cities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district and a medium-sized centre between ...
, Germany (the view "through" the wall at the end)
Image:Lyon, Trompe d'oeil at night.jpg, A in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, France
Image:utmural.jpg, Bronze Statues in Mt. Pleasant, Utah
Image:Chateau Thal Entrance to library.jpg, Architectural wall and ceiling , Entrance to the library of Chateau Thal, by Rainer Maria Latzke
Image:Trompe lóeil Villa Paradou.jpg, Painted trompe-l'œil mosaic, floor in the Villa Paradou in
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionRainer Maria Latzke
File:LA founding historical mural.jpg,
Los Angeles Plaza Historic District
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
: mural off Alameda Street
File:John Pugh's mural on a façade of Taylor Hall at California State University at Chico can easily cause double-takes LCCN2013631111.tif, Conceptual mural at
California State University, Chico
California State University, Chico (Chico State) is a public university in Chico, California. It was founded in 1887 as one of about 180 "normal schools" founded by state governments in the 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing ...
titled "Academe", featuring Doric columns and crumbling walls, by John Pugh
Sculptures
Image:Bankfield Museum 035.jpg, 19th-century marble bust with apparently transparent veil,
Bankfield Museum
Bankfield Museum is a grade II listed building, listed historic house museum, incorporating a regimental museum and textiles gallery in Boothtown, Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax, England. It is notable for its past ownership and development ...
,
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woo ...
.
Image:Bankfield Museum 036.jpg, The same bust seen in profile. The effect is consistent from all angles and from close up.
Image:Magic_carpet_mosaic_fountain.jpg, A modern mosaic fountain at
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, in the form of a carpet thrown over marble steps.
Image:La tombe de Rudolf Noureev (Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois) (8351663480).jpg, Tomb of
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...
draped in a mosaic oriental carpet sculpture.
Architecture
Image:Forced perspective gallery by Francesco Borromini.jpg, Architectural in the
Palazzo Spada
The Palazzo Spada is a palace located on Piazza di Capo Ferro #13 in the rione Regola of Rome, Italy. Standing very close to the Palazzo Farnese, it has a garden facing towards the Tiber river.
The palace accommodates a large art collection, ...
,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, by
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini (, ), byname of Francesco Castelli (; 25 September 1599 – 2 August 1667), was an Italian architect born in the modern Switzerland, Swiss canton of Ticino
Image:BiellaDuomo.jpg, The interior of the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
in
Biella
Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...
(
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
) is considered a masterpiece of
File:SanSatiroInteriors.jpg, The interior of
Santa Maria presso San Satiro
Santa Maria presso San Satiro ( Saint Mary near Saint Satyrus) is a church in Milan. The Italian Renaissance structure (1476–1482) houses the early medieval shrine to Satyrus, brother of Saint Ambrose. The church is known for its false ap ...
,
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
viewed from the nave
File:SanSatiroInteriors3_crop.jpg, The trompe-l'œil choir at Santa Maria presso San Satiro, by
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante (1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rom ...
, viewed from the side
File:Chateau_Tanlay_galerie_trompe-l-oeil.jpg, Gallery painted in in the
Château de Tanlay
The Château de Tanlay at Tanlay (Yonne) is a French château built in Burgundy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, famous for its beauty and the setting. The walls are of limestone under tall sloping slate roofs ''à la française' ...
, France
File:Interior of Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza)- Scaenae frons close-up - La porta regia.jpg, Detail of the forced perspective stage scenery of the
Teatro Olimpico
The ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. It was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The ''trompe-l'œil'' onstag ...
, as viewed through the ''porta reggia'' of the ''scaenae frons'',
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...
, northern Italy
File:Painted Hall.jpg, The
Painted Hall
The Old Royal Naval College are buildings that serve as the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ...
at the
Old Royal Naval College
The Old Royal Naval College are buildings that serve as the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ...
in
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England, designed by
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was acc ...
and
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor ( – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects ...
. The paintings by Sir James Thornhill comprise architectural ''trompe-l'œil''; for instance, the Corinthian columns look fluted whilst the far wall depicts
pilasters
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
and an
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
. In practice none of these elements exist in the third dimension
File:Henry G. Marquand House Conservatory Stained Glass Window.jpg, 19th-century stained-glass window made for the Henry Gurdon Marquand's mansion in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
Use in films
*''
Singin' in the Rain
''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Rita Moreno a ...
'' (1952)
*''
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart from a screenplay by Roald Dahl, based on his 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. It stars Gene Wilder as chocol ...
'' (1971)
*''
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' is a 1989 American action adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, based on a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jone ...
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' is a 2004 American surrealist science fiction romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman from a story by Gondry, Kaufman, and Pierre Bismuth. Starring Jim Carrey a ...
* 2.5D—enhancement of 2-dimensional graphics by limited application of some 3D effects to them
*
Bump mapping
Bump mapping is a texture mapping technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calcul ...
,
normal mapping
In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or Dot3 bump mapping, is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents – an implementation of bump mapping. It is used to add details without using more polygonal modeling, ...
and parallax mapping—graphical techniques used to add fake details that enhance 2D representations of 3D objects (in the context of that branch of computer graphics that aims to give a realistic 3D view on the screen)
*
Camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
Faux painting
Faux painting or faux finishing are terms used to describe decorative paint finishes that replicate the appearance of materials such as marble, wood or stone. The term comes from the French word '' faux'', meaning false, as these techniques sta ...
*
Photorealism
Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can b ...
*
Anamorphosis
Anamorphosis is a distorted projection that requires the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film speci ...
List of art techniques There is no exact definition of what constitutes art. Artists have explored many styles and have used many different techniques to create art.
Art techniques
A
* Airbrush#Technique, Airbrushing technique
* Aerial_perspective#In_art, Aerial pe ...