Used to images as we are, it is easy not to forget the effect a good trompe l’oeil would have had five centuries ago. Imagine this wooden panel by Barbari hanging on a wall in some hunting lodge where any unexpected viewer would be surprised it was a painting instead of the real thing. It is the same optical illusion we still like watching (be it in other forms).
![](https://sizeofart.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SizeOfArt_DailyDose_184b-1024x683.jpg)
Barbari’s still life shows a dead partridge, a pair of gauntlets and a bolt of a crossbow. He signed it with his name and the year 1504.
![](https://sizeofart.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SizeOfArt_DailyDose_184d-1024x656.jpg)
![](https://sizeofart.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SizeOfArt_DailyDose_184c.jpg)