Trompe l'oeil

Trompe l'oeil (from the French for «deceives the eye») is a painting technique that creates an illusion of a real object or scene so convincing that the viewer, at least for a moment, takes what is depicted for an actual thing. This is achieved through the skilful use of perspective, precise light-and-shade modelling, life-size scale, and meticulously rendered surface texture. Trompe l'oeil often depicts objects in shallow space — pinned-up letters, coins, a glazed cabinet door, insects on a wall — things that are easily mistaken for reality. The origins of the device reach back to antiquity, and it flourished in European Baroque art and in seventeenth-century Dutch still life, where masters created illusory niches, shelves, and letter racks. Trompe l'oeil is closely bound up with the notions of illusionism and the still-life «deception». Although often regarded as a virtuoso game, it raises profound questions about the nature of vision, reality, and art itself, which is what has attracted artists from the Renaissance to the present day.