trompe l'oeil

Style of representation in which a painted object is intended to deceive the viewer into believing it is the object itself. First employed by the ancient Greeks, trompe l'oeil was also popular with Roman muralists. Since the early Renaissance, European painters have used trompe l'oeil to create false frames from which the contents of still lifes or portraits seemed to spill and to paint windowlike images that appeared to be actual openings in a wall or ceiling.

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