The Seeing Glass

Inspired by the Delaware Art Museum’s Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art, collaborators Troy Richards and Knut Hybinette develop a pop-up virtual reality (VR) experience for the Pre-Raphaelite galleries. 

Titled the seeing glass, the work imagines the world inside the circular mirror hanging in the background of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s La Bella Mano (1875). Once in the dreamlike world, the viewer is transformed into a Victorian-era interior replete with lavish décor and still lifes of flowers, fruit, insects, and skulls. As one moves through the space, objects become blurred and time speeds up, transforming fruit from green to rotten in a matter of seconds. 

The seeing glass allows viewers the opportunity to become immersed in a virtual manifestation of historical painting and witness the artificial passage of time.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website