Silhouettes

Silhouettes pasted on strong paper.
Probably realized in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, silhouettes in shadow were particularly popular at that time. The fascination with these shadow profiles dates back to Antiquity according to Pliny the Elder, whom he considers to be the origin of painting and sculpture in his Natural History (Book XXXV, § 151-152): By using the earth as well, the Butadès de Sicyone potter first discovered the art of modeling portraits of clay; It happened at Corinth, and he owed his invention to his daughter, who was in love with a young man; The latter setting out for the stranger, surrounded in a line the shadow of his face projected on the wall by the light of a lantern; His father applied the clay to the sketch, made a relief of it, which he set to harden in the fire with the rest of his pottery after drying it.