Magic in Art

The kind of magic referred to in the title is of the sleight of hand variety, rather than the poetic, and young readers will no doubt love this tour through the world of visual puns, pranks and trompe l’oeil.

All the expected tricksters are here, many of their artworks having achieved cliché status over the years. ‘The Impossible World of Escher’, with its conundrums of mathematical perspective was probably the first on the team-sheet for this collection, with fruit and veg man Giuseppe Archimboldo not far behind. Readers are also introduced to anamorphic paintings, which only make sense when viewed from certain angles or through particular shaped mirrors. As well as these perversions the book deals with the basics of western perspective traditions and theories of colour-mixing and placing, as practised by impressionist pointillists such as Seurat. Reproductions of painted ceilings by Mantegna and Pozzo, creating fabulous illusions of space and height, add to the mix, and will perhaps encourage readers to visit the real thing. This is a useful ‘way in’ to the more mathematical side of the art world, and may excite curiosity to look further.