Trompe-l'oeil (album)

Trompe-l'œil is the second album by the indie rock band Malajube, released in 2006 on Dare to Care Records. The album is inspired in part by medical themes; in the album's liner notes, each song is given a subtitle relating to some aspect of physical or mental health.

Guest musicians

"Jus De Canneberges" - Ryan Battistuzzi on guitar, Catherine Lesaunier on cello and Martine Gaumond on violin.
"Montréal -40°C" - Pierre Lapointe, Martin Pelland and Simon Proulx on vocals, Valérie Jodoin-Keaton on western concert flute and vocals, Ryan Battistuzzi on guitar and Joe des Breast on maracas.
"Pâte Filo" - Ryan Battistuzzi on slide guitar, Catherine Lesaunier on cello and Martine Gaumond on violin.
"Le Crabe" - Valérie Jodoin-Keaton on vocals.
"La Monogamie" - Valérie Jodoin-Keaton and Virginie Parr on vocals and Ryan Battistuzzi on slide guitar.
"Ton Plat Favori" - Valérie Jodoin-Keaton on vocals.
"La Russe" - Loco Locass on vocals.
"Casse-cou" - Valérie Jodoin-Keaton on western concert flute and vocals and Ryan Battistuzzi on guitar.
"Étienne D'Août" - Catherine Lesaunier on cello and Martine Gaumond on violin.

Trompe-l'œil

Trompe-l'œil (French for "deceive the eye", pronounced [tʁɔ̃p lœj]) is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture.

History in painting

Though the phrase, which can also be spelled without the hyphen and ligature in English as trompe l'oeil, originates in the Baroque period, when it refers to perspectival illusionism, trompe-l'œil dates much further back. It was (and is) often employed in murals. Instances from Greek and Roman times are known, for instance in Pompeii. A typical trompe-l'œil mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.

A version of an oft-told ancient Greek story concerns a contest between two renowned painters. Zeuxis (born around 464 BC) produced a still life painting so convincing that birds flew down to peck at the painted grapes. A rival, Parrhasius, asked Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings that was behind a pair of tattered curtains in his study. Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to pull back the curtains, but when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains were included in Parrhasius's painting—making Parrhasius the winner.