I believe that the Cubists, Fauvists, Dadaists, Modernists, Surrealists and other painters; were using a kind of reflecting and projection device to create their work, resulting in stylistic treatments that encrypt and then decode the true content of the imagery. Such a device would layer an inversion of a painting against the correct direction (and this up to eight times), and could then be registered to one of various center points to reveal a particular storyline. Because there might be several possible center points in one image, unlocking the painting with this layering turns it into a story telling machine, turning the viewer/viewfinder into a participant with the work, like a projectionist.
Braque’s 1910 painting Violin and Candlestick is analyzed above, and one narrative found is about the sacking of The Old Summer Palace during the Opium Wars. Braque was French, but it would have had to be his father who might have had any memory of France joining England’s war in 1860 - but join they did, and what the two armies accomplished together in looting is still a sore subject. Anyway, in order to understand the imagery, knowing what opium vessels look like - ceramic spheres - and that they resemble cannonballs - makes a difference. Behold one, un-hidden sphere, smack in the middle of the painting without layering. The video shows progressions towards an architectural description of The Old Summer Palace, caricatures of English and Chinese soldiers, battle scenes on water, and two, rich “interference fields,” where a person would stand in front of the layered image and allow their eyes to relax into optical illusions of the many animals that had been represented in front of The Old Summer Palace.
That is one story line, but there are several more, including a dominant Christian theme with many stories about ascension - like, A LOT, like we get it. It cannot be emphasized enough how delightful it is to process this image as it layers - the brushiness translates to something sparkling and active, between mother of pearl and sequins; and what looked like texture is really tender rendering. The painting is actually so rich with content, it is hard to recreate a center-point without discovery along the way. It would appear that the owner of the painting could, if the owner had the device, entertain oneself FOREVER with how many stories and images and optical illusions that might occur. Without the device, then the viewer is pretty much just staring at a rendering of an opium sphere, waiting.