Optical Illusion: Anamorphosis

An optical illusion is something that deceives the eye by appearing to be other than it is. Anamorphosis is a type optical illusion that utilizes distorted perspective. This type of illusion forces the viewer to stand at a certain point or to use special devices in order to reconstitute the image. There are two common forms of anamorphosis called “oblique” and “catoptric”. Oblique illusions the image must be viewed from a position that is very far from the usual in front and straight ahead position that we normally expect images to be looked at. A great example of an oblique illusion is Hans Holbein’s anamorphic skull that he painted in his painting The Ambassadors. This illusion is only able to be seen if the viewer is very close to the bottom lefthand corner of the pice looking upwards. He used this anamorphic skull to as a sort of visual puzzle that would engage the viewer and also was a symbol of death always being around. It is amazing to me that he was able to create such an accurate anamorphosis way back then without any modern technology to assist him such as a projector. In catoptric anamorphosis the image must be seen reflected in a distorting mirror. These distortion mirrors are typically in the shape cylindrical, conical and pyramidal objects as seen in the picture below. The thing I have always found so fascinating about anamorphosis is how the images alter so drastically and can appear to be popping off the page when you view them from the proper position. In the past anamorphic drawings and paintings were used solely to hide and display images in clever ways but today anamorphosis is also used in road signage such as in the photo of the writing on the roadway below. 



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