View of the Piazza of Saint John Lateran, Mother and Chief of All Churches in Rome — Basset

An eighteenth-century hand-coloured optical print, designed to be viewed through a zograscope or peep-show device that gave the image a vivid sense of three-dimensional depth.

Published by Basset, Paris, c. 1770.

Vues d’optique were among the most popular printed entertainments of the eighteenth century. The reversed lettering in the title — a hallmark of the genre — was designed to read correctly when reflected in the viewing device’s mirror. These prints circulated widely across Europe, bringing views of distant cities and monuments into bourgeois drawing rooms.

Hand-coloured copperplate engraving. Sheet size approximately 32.0 × 49.0 cm. Good.