Optical view

The optical view is an etching printed on paper using the acid etching technique and hand-coloured. It was made expressly to be observed inside a peep show box through the zograscope. Rectangular in shape, the image usually had a very pronounced perspective so that if you looked at it through a lens it would give a sense of depth. Often the optical view includes a short text with information about the place depicted. Optical views mainly show images of cities, streets, monuments, buildings... specific places in Europe and the world to meet the need to know of people who did not usually travel. It also responded to the need to see what was surprising, exotic or unattainable: the opulence of the rich or the exoticism of the unknown world. Optical views appeared in England during the first third of the eighteenth century and their heyday, linked to the show of the peep show box, lasted until the early nineteenth century. There were four major cities producing optical views throughout the 18th century: London, Paris, Bassano, and Augsburg.