trompe l'oeil

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a painting technique that creates an optical illusion so convincing that the depicted objects appear to be real three-dimensional things rather than painted representations, exploiting perspective, foreshortening, and precise rendering of shadow and reflection to fool the eye; from the French for deceive the eye, trompe l'oeil has a history stretching from ancient Greek panel painting — Pliny records the story of Zeuxis painting grapes so realistic that birds pecked at them — through Baroque ceiling frescoes that appear to open into the sky, to contemporary illusionistic murals and hyper-realistic still-life painting; the technique foregrounds questions about the nature of visual representation, the relationship between art and reality, and the pleasure taken in the skilled deception of the senses