1689 · Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence

This trompe-l'oeil painting representing a cabinet of curiosities blurs the boundary between real and fictitious space. Trompe-l'oeil, the French term for "eye-deceiver," is a modern word for an old phenomenon: a three-dimensional "perception" provoked by a flat surface, for a puzzling moment of insecurity and reflection. The early precursors of modern trompe l'oeil appeared during the Renaissance, with the discovery of mathematically correct perspective.Show more