The display is created entirely from the State Hermitage’s own stocks and features items that make it possible to picture the great variety of types of skilful illusion created in different eras, cultures and regions and to trace their evolution over many centuries.
Trompe l’oeil means the illusory reproduction of real-life objects by artistic methods, giving the viewer the impression of the actual thing being present rather than a representation. In their closeness to reality, such works almost touch the boundary between the world of the depiction and the actual world, while nonetheless remaining works of art. They do not replace the thing but create a persuasive image of it. That image is special, presented to the viewer with virtuosity, leaving us astonished at the artists’ skill. Looking at works like these calls to mind an aphorism in the works of the 19th-century fictional author Kozma Prutkov: “If the sign on the elephant’s cage reads ‘Buffalo’, believe not thine eyes.”