Can You Trompe This?

By Melissa August, Amanda Bower, Beau Briese, Rhett Butler, Belinda Luscombe, Ellin Martens, Andrea Sachs, Ryan Schick, Sora Song, Heather Won Tesoriero, Kadesha Thomas

Civilizations rise and fall, but decorative techniques hang around forever. At least that seems to be the case with trompe l'oeil, painting that aims to fool people into mistaking it for three-dimensional reality. Practiced by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, mastered by the Dutch and named by the French, this "trick of the eye" is still very much with us and is turning up in some unusual new places.