Vue d'optique - Vue du cours de Marseille

Original engraving. Optical view heightened in watercolor, depicting a view of the court of Marseille.
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 set of several mirrors or by means of a Zygrascope, 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 salon entertainments. The process was developed first in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and focused on representing - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
A tiny tear with lack to lower left corner, otherwise fine impression with very fresh colors.