Do not believe your eyes.
Hello everyone. Today I’m going to tell you about a very interesting type of art, that was born in Italy.
The fishing village near Genoa is full of trompe-l’œil (French for “deceives the eye”)) – a type of art in which nothing is what it seems to be.
Trompe L’Oeil, pronounced ‘tromp loy’, means ‘trick the eye’ in French and refers to the particular style of painting whereby the artist creates an illusion of space and paints an apparently three dimensional image on the wall within the context of the surrounding architecture.
Camogli looks just like any other town on the Italian Coast. The little coloured houses face the sea and the sun shines on them. But if you look carefully, you’ll see something very Interesting.
In the town of Camogli, there are many things that seem real…But they are not.
For example in this particular village, windows open in solid walls. There seems to be elaborate stonework – but it isn’t stonework – it’s paint! And while some flowers die, other flowers live for years. Why? Because they are apinted on the building.
In the past, Camogli’s fishermen used to paint their houses in bright colours and usual designs. They did this so that they could easily see their homes from the water.
Then in 1700s this style of art became a way to make small simple buildings look grand and seem like they were very expensive.
Now there are still thousands of trompe-l’œil houses in this area. But only few artists still paint them.
It takes a lot time to became a good trompe-loeil painter to be ableto paint stone so well that it looks rea, even if you’re close to it.
Although the Greeks invented it, it was the Romans who developed it to enhance their living spaces, making private homes appear grander and more spacious with the use of extraordinary theatrical illusions to adorn bare walls. We are fortunate that so many of these early wall paintings have been preserved all over the world – in tombs,...