Description

AN EARLY 19th OPTICAL ILLUSION (“ICONANTIDIPTIC”) PICTURE – Napoleon & Maria Louise d’Austriche

France, early 19th century

Dimension with frame: 24x21cm (9 ½ x 8 ¼”), without: 18x13cm (7 x 5”).

A wooden board is composed of two prints mounted in one frame to which wooden strips are fixed lengthwise. Both the strips and board are fixed in such a way that two different figures will appear, depending on the viewer’s position. If we look at the board from the left, we will see the portrait of Napoleon alone; if we look from the right, we will see the imagine of his wife, Maria Louise d’Austriche (1791-1847).

Napoleon married Marie Louise in 1810 and was with her until his death in 1821.

Marie Louise and Napoleon portraits are taken from Rosemberg painting (now at Louvre).

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This attractive optical illusion (“iconantidiptic”) picture is in very good overall condition, with its original gilt frame.

The subjects used here are rare in this type of optical games that prefigures kinetic art : known since the 17th century, it most often used religious scenes.

This kind of optical toys are rare, we were able to locate another one in Museo Galileo (Florence) from the 17th century (https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/OpticalToy_n02.html). One of the first image of this kind of perspective study was published by J.F. Niceron in his 1663 “La Perspective Curieuse” (see photo).