Blank, Empty and Missing Things: the Magic Painter, 1770

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1823

In his fabulous four-volume work, Nouvelles recreations physiques et mathematicques (published from 1769-1770), Edme Gilles Guyot (1706 - 1786) writes about applied math and physics and optics and the associated over a very wide landscape and dives deep into their distracting, entertainment value--polite intellectual diversions, optical illusions, and artistic magic.  And not "magic" as in the supernatural/paranormal flavors--but performance magic, the art of magic, that employs elements of the sciences to trick the audience--and reveals its secrets to his readers.

[Source, with full text, here.]

This engraving, above, illustrates an object he describes called "the magic painter", a performance trick using a good story line, nice props, and a relatively not-yet-widely-understood-or-experienced property, the magnet.   The box seen by the audience was the box (seen at top left) illustrating an artist at his easel--an artist with such great sense of anticipation that he could determine what sort of painting his customers would like to have painted.  And in this case the audience of the magician would chose what they wanted to see "painted" here from among the four scenes shown at bottom....

The member of the audience would stand, declare the painting they would like to see be painted by the painted painter, and then the conjurer would make that happen.  The artist's easel was actually an open window, its blankness being the inside of the box.  The four paintings at bottom were all painted in miniature of a revolving disk (figure 2) inside the box, and all with magnets mounted on their reverse.  The pictures shown to the audience would also have magnets on them, and, once selected, the paintings would be placed behind the box in such a way that the images would align causing the selected painting and its correspondent on the interior revolving wheel to match up, bringing the selected painting into the opening of the easel.  It was a very ingenious device, and no doubt would have been a big crowd pleaser. It also wouldn't necessarily grow tiresome, as the paintings and their complements on the wheel could be easily changed. 

Notes:

An interesting and amusing work, Devices of Wonder, from the World in a Box to Images on a Screen, Getty, 2002, addresses this and many other optical wonders.  It is sort of an exhibition catalog for a show by this name that appeared at the Getty in 2002. 

"Construction:  Faites faire deux petites boètes M et N Figure premiere Planche troisieme de quatre pouces & demi ou environ de longueur sur quatre de large que la premiere M ait un demi pouce de profondeur et la deuxieme N seule ment quatre lignes j qu elles s ouvrent toutes deux à charnieres.."