Fraudulent Paintings: How Artists Confused Viewers for Centuries

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Optical illusions are not a new phenomenon, the ancient creators were the first "illusionists". With the development of painting, the skill of artists in the creation of fraudulent paintings improved - at first confusing, always bewitching and memorable.

Fake curtains, fruits and atriums

Now it is no longer possible to determine which of the ancient artists guessed about the possibilities that an image on a flat surface of a three-dimensional object opens up. But both the Greeks and the Romans used drawings on the walls in order to visually enlarge the room, make it lighter, more spacious, more beautiful - this is how fake windows, doors, and atriums appeared. Finds in Pompeii and Herculaneum - the ancient Roman cities where most of the frescoes of antiquity have survived - show that already in those days, illusion paintings were popular.

The level of execution of the trick paintings illustrates the dispute between the ancient Greek artists Zeuxis and Parrasius. The masters undertook to create images that cannot be distinguished from real objects. Zeuxis depicted grapes - so reliably that the surrounding birds immediately flocked to the picture. Satisfied with his skill, he suggested that Parrasius should also throw the crumpled, tattered curtain off his work so that one could appreciate the picture. However, he admitted that the curtain is just an image.

It was not necessary to expect such experiments from the artists of the Middle Ages, who strictly followed the canons in the visual arts, but with the advent of the Renaissance, studies of the laws of perspective and chiaroscuro, begun in antiquity, continued, including in order to surprise and confuse the viewer.

Baroque and trompe l'oeil

The development of "deceptive" images in Italy and France of the Baroque period (XVII - XVIII centuries) acquired a special scope. The architectural and picturesque space of the buildings erected at that time merged into a single whole, a new reality literally arose from the void - it is not surprising that this technique was so interesting to the Renaissance man. As in the period of ancient art, one of the main goals of creating such illusions was the desire to visually expand the room, to create the impression that the vaults are higher, and the interior itself is more voluminous and airy.

Andrea Mantegna was one of the first masters to use this idea in his work. The technique, which achieved the effect of stretching the space upward, was called di sotto in su (from Italian - “from bottom to top”). A vivid example of an illusion that distorts the idea of the real proportions and position of building elements is the painting on the dome in the Jesuit Church in Vienna. In reality, the vaults have a very slight bend, but thanks to the perfect application of the laws of perspective, the dome appears to be a massive structural element of the temple.

At the time of the Baroque, the term also appears, which will then be used as the name of the picturesque "trompe l'oeil" - trompe (trompe l'oeil in translation from French - "deceive the eye"). Trompley has become one of the main entertainments in the decoration and decoration of palaces and castles, and behind them - the houses of townspeople who love art and want to surprise.

Deceptions in the houses and on the houses of ordinary townspeople

One of the simplest and most common ways to mislead the viewer was to depict a fake frame - a technique that Dutch artists began to use as well. It is in this part of Europe that illusionary painting has gained particular popularity. Dutch homeowners loved to equip and decorate their homes, and most importantly, they could afford it, and therefore the demand for the work of masters of painting generated a large number of works, among which there were real masterpieces.

To give an object, written on a flat canvas, the illusion of three-dimensionality, three-dimensionality, thereby confusing people looking at the picture for a while, has become for a long time a fashionable trend in the fine arts of the 17th century and an entertainment for connoisseurs of painting. Among those who reached special heights in the art of creating fake paintings were Samuel van Hoogstraten, a student of Rembrandt himself, Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts, and later in England - Johann Heinrich Fussli.

In France, this technique was developed by François de la Motte. In the Russian Empire, the works of the artist Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy attracted attention by their realism and thoroughness of execution.

In addition to trick paintings, trick figures were often found in interiors - they were installed in rooms, in halls, in the garden in order to "revive" the atmosphere and surprise guests. Such mannequin boards were made by drawing figures of people on a wooden panel, after which the image was cut out and placed vertically on stands. The popularity of such interior decorations in Europe brought the artists of that time a good income.

In the interiors, one could often find still lifes, but they were made with the expectation that the objects on the canvas would seem to the viewer not depicted, but real and somehow fixed.

In the modern world, the trompe l'oeil does not give up its position, shifting the emphasis from interiors to street painting - and thus surprising a much larger number of spectators.

Trompe l'oeil paintings are perhaps one of the results of the study of the possibilities of painting and art in general - an attempt to erase the line between reality and illusion, to continue the visible world beyond the bounds of its existence, to create a new dimension, into which art becomes a guide.

Currently, new masters are appearing, faithful to one of the main purposes of art - to surprise and bewitch, such as Alexa Mead.