Vue d'optique - Vue perspective de la grande Place du peuple, à Rome

Original engraving.
Optical view heightened in watercolor, depicting a view of the great Piazza del Popolo, in Rome.
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 viewed through a set of several mirrors or by means of a Zograscope, 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 appear in the 1740s and were parlor 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. Fine impression with very fresh colors.