Interior of the Certosa di Pavia — Basset

A hand-coloured optical print transporting the viewer into the soaring nave of the Certosa di Pavia, one of Italy's grandest monasteries.

Original title Vue perspective du dedans de l'Eglise des Chartreux de Pavie en Italie; published by Basset, Paris, c. 1770.

Vues d'optique were among the most popular printed entertainments of the eighteenth century, designed to be viewed through a zograscope or peep-show box that lent the scene a vivid sense of three-dimensional depth. Their deep, exaggerated perspective made church interiors especially compelling, carrying armchair travellers inside celebrated monuments such as the Certosa di Pavia — the great Carthusian charterhouse begun in 1396 — that most would never see in person.

Hand-coloured copperplate engraving; sheet approximately 36.5 × 52.0 cm; in very good condition.