Vue d'optique - Vue intérieure de Saint Pierre de Rome.

Original engraving. Optical view heightened in watercolour, depicting an interior view of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Optical views, also called vues, perspectives or "mondo nuovo", are engravings that were very fashionable between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were intended to be observed through a set of mirrors or by means of a Zograscope, an instrument consisting of a mirror and a lens. Optical views can be considered the precursors of three-dimensional images and stereoscopes which enjoyed great success from the 19th century onwards. Optical views seem to appear in the 1740s and were parlour entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and aimed to represent - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
A fine impression with very fresh colours.