Two images in one. Rethinking Illusions looking “through” Alberti’s window.

In the first part of this work, the “stimulus error” paradigm is used to show how the classic perceptual phenomena known as “illusions” are perceived as being characterized by duality and identity. In the second part, research on illusions as developed in the field of the psychology of perception is compared to the use of illusory effects in pictorial figurative art. This is further extended to a comparison between Picture-view and Mirror-view images. Finally, it will be shown that the duality-sameness of picture and Mirror views is present in Brunelleschi's well known “peepshow” experiment and in Alberti’s front picture plane (Alberti’s window).