Lenticular Engraving
Fine Arts
Inventory number
2025.6.20.2.FA.GR.C1860.FR
Description
A lenticular engraving with a trio of portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte, Joséphine, and Napoleon III. Napoleon I appears in formal military attire, wearing a bicorne hat and epaulettes. Joséphine is shown in imperial court dress, wearing a diadem and veil, echoing her image at the 1804 coronation. Napoleon III is also wearing a military uniform that is highly decorated, stylized similar to Second Empire portraits. One of these engravings was taken from another portrait that was painted by the official court portrait artist, François Gérard. The images were engraved on vertical strips to create an illusion, making the portraits change depending on the viewer's relative position to the engraving. The artwork in housed in a carved black wooden frame, which has a floral molding and an inner gold trim.
This is a tabula scalata technique, which is a mechanical optical effect rooted in early trompe-l'oeil traditions. It's a type of anamorphic art. Historically, tabula scalata dates to the 16th century. It was popularized in the Renaissance and Baroque Europe. It was usually used to depict dual themes, as the images of the illusion were meant to go togther. Trisceneoramas are a specific type of tabula scalata that has three images, and were very popular at the end of the 19th century mostly as souvenirs in France and Italy. The Napoleon I, Joséphine, and Napoleon III are positioned in a trisceneorama here to compare the three of them to the Holy Trinity; Napoleon I as the Father, Joséphine as the Queen of Heaven, and Napoleon III as Christ in the imperial age.
Material
Canvas
Origin
circa 1860
France
Dimensions
Width : 3.81 cm
Length : 68.58 cm
Height : 83.82 cm