Trompe l'Oeil

Trompe l'Oeil, French term meaning “deceives the eye”, applied to paintings or details of paintings that are intended to trick the eye into perceiving an actual three-dimensional object that is in reality a two-dimensional representation of that object. For example, a painting of a fly on a curtain can be executed in such a way that the curtain is perceived as part of the painting but the fly is mistaken for a real insect that has landed on the surface of the picture.

According to contemporary accounts, the technique was practised extensively by the ancient Greek and Roman painters. During the Renaissance, wealthy patrons would delight in commissioning painters to devise elaborate trompe l'oeil schemes. Entire rooms might be decorated in trick perspective, with doors and windows painted in trompe l'oeil, complete with people passing in and out, and a vista or skyscape beyond. Ceilings were also painted with, for example, balconies from which putti (cherubs) appear to gaze down upon the viewer. In more recent times, trompe l'oeil was revived by the 19th-century American still-life painter William Harnett.