Vue d'optique - Vue de la barrière des Gobelins ou d'Italie

Original engraving. Optical view heightened in watercolor, depicting a view of the Barrière des Gobelins or d'Italie.
Optical views, also called views, 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 system of multiple mirrors or by means of a Zygrascope, an instrument consisting of a mirror and a lens. Optical views can be considered as the precursors of three-dimensional images and stereoscopes which enjoyed great success from the 19th century onwards. Optical views seem to have appeared in the 1740s and were salon entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and sought to represent - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
A strip of paper reinforces the plate in the left margin.
Fine plate with fresh colors.