West Wall

Featuring around the edge of the West Wall of the Painted Hall is Trompe-L’œil, the French term for “deceives the eye”. It refers to a technique where two dimensional surfaces are painted with such a degree of shading and realism that our eyes are ‘tricked’ into believing that the subjects more likely exist in a three dimensional form.

A closer look at the carvings topping the window arches of the Painted Hall and the fluted stone Ionic columns reveals a carefully crafted optical illusion. In order to appease the Governors of the Royal Hospital, who required a more ‘maritime‘ feel to his designs for the Painted Hall, Sir James Thornhill filled the borders and blank spaces with Trompe-L’œil seaweed, sea shells, flags, arms and nautical paraphernalia.