Trompe l'oeil

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Trompe-l'¿il, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, (French for 'trick the eye', pronounced [t¿¿¿p l¿j]) is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions, instead of actually being a two-dimensional painting. Although the phrase has its origin in the Baroque period, when it refers to perspectival illusionism, use of trompe-l'¿il dates back much further. It was (and is) often employed in murals. Instances from Greek and Roman times are known, for instance in Pompeii. A typical trompe-l'¿il mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.