Trompe-l'œil

The phrase, which can also be spelled without the hyphen and ligature in English as trompe l'oeil,[1] originates with the artist Louis-Léopold Boilly, who used it as the title of a painting he exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1800.

This type of trompe-l'œil illusionism as specifically applied to ceiling paintings is known as di sotto in sù, meaning "from below, upward" in Italian.

Well-known examples are the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua and Antonio da Correggio's (1489–1534) Assumption of the Virgin in the Parma Cathedral.

Similarly, Vittorio Carpaccio (1460–1525) and Jacopo de' Barbari (c. 1440 – before 1516) added small trompe-l'œil features to their paintings, playfully exploring the boundary between image and reality.

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's Allegory of Divine Providence in the Palazzo Barberini and Andrea Pozzo's Apotheosis of St Ignatius on the ceiling of the Roman church of Sant'Ignazio in Campo Marzio.

[6][7] A fanciful form of architectural trompe-l'œil, quodlibet, features realistically rendered paintings of such items as paper knives, playing cards, ribbons, and scissors, apparently accidentally left lying around.

A particularly impressive example can be seen at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, 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.

This Wren 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.

From the beginning of the 1980s when German artist Rainer Maria Latzke began to combine classical fresco art with contemporary content, trompe-l'œil became increasingly popular for interior murals.

[10] Trompe-l'œil, in the form of "forced perspective", has long been used in stage-theater set design, so as to create the illusion of a much deeper space than the existing stage.

The Palazzo Salis of Tirano, 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.