In other Art Forms

Detail of the stage scenery of the Teatro Olimpico, as viewed through the porta reggia of the scaenae frons.

Trompe-l’œil has long been used in set design, so as to create the illusion of a much deeper space then the actual stage. A famous early example is the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, with Vincenzo Scamozzi’s seven forced-perspective “streets” (1585) which appear to recede into the distance.

Trompe-l’œil is employed in Donald O’Connor’s famous “Running up the wall” scene in the film Singin’ in the Rain (1954). During the finale of his “Make ‘em Laugh” number he first runs up a real wall. Then he runs towards what appears to be a hallway, but when he runs up this as well we realize that it is a large trompe-l’œil mural. More recently, Roy Andersson has made use of similar techniques in his feature films.

Another variant of trompe-l’œil is matte painting, a painting techniques used in filmmaking where parts of a complicated scenery are painted on glass panels which are mounted in front of the camera during shooting of the scene. This was for instance used in early Star Wars movies.

Fictional trompe-l’œil is featured in many Looney Tunes, such as the Road Runner cartoons, where, for example, Wile E. Coyote paints a tunnel on a rock wall, and the Road runner then races through the fake tunnel. This is usually followed by the coyote’s foolishly trying to run through the tunnel after the road runner, only to smash into the hard rock-face. This sight gag was employed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

On Chicago’s Near North Side, a 16-story 1929 apartment hotel converted into a 1981 apartment building, was used by Richard Haas for trompe-l’œil murals in homage to Chicago School architecture. One of the building’s sides features the Chicago Board of Trade Building, intended as a reflection of the actual building two miles south.

Trompe l´oeil, also known as illusion art painting techniques, is also used in contemporary interior design, where illusionary wall paintings experienced a Renaissance since around 1980. Significant artists in this field are the German muralist Rainer Maria Latzke, who invented in the 90′s a new method of producing illusion paintings, the Frescography and the English artist Graham Rust.