Tuesday 20 September 2016

Topsy-turvy

Lux, from Germany, sells on 24 September 2016 an "Unknown master, 19th century" Drehbild, a type of trompe-l'oeil which gives a different image right way up or upside down. "Turn image" would be the literal translation, I don't know whether a real term for this exists in English. The estimate is only 150 Euro.

This type of painting seems to be very rare. A famous early example are the "Reversibe Head" and "The Cook" by Giuseppe Arcimbaldo (who loved to play with images). In Germany, the satirical magazines like the Fliegende Blätter often had

The one for sale here is somewhat forced, neither image is terribly convincing (the pig is good enough, but the face has some very strange aspects), but as a highly unusual example of this specific type of trompe-l'oeil I believe it should be worth closer to 1,000 Euro than the very low estimate.

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