Transparency
Transparent images , formerly known as diaphanias , more rarely also Vitreauphanien , are representations mainly on paper, the decorative motifs of which shine brightly in the transmitted light.
history
Already at the beginning of the 19th century there are reports of copperplate engravings that were colored with oily paints. Other manufacturers processed the backing paper with reindeer moss and gelatine to achieve transparency.
From 1875 to 1910, diaphanias were extremely widespread as decorations on windows and glass doors in bourgeois apartments. The motifs were often based on stained glass with their highlighted contours . A special case of the diaphanias were the lithophanes made of pressed paper , which, like their eponymous porcelain model, derived their visual effect from the different shades of gray depending on the thickness of the paper. Because of the sensitivity of the materials used, hardly any historical examples have survived, and they are very rare even in cultural and historical museum collections.
The sheets presented in peep boxes have been preserved more often and, if appropriately prepared, were also referred to as transparencies .
literature
- Article Diaphanien und Lithophanien , In: Christa Pieske: ABC des Luxuspapiers, production, distribution and use 1860–1930. Museum for German Folklore, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-88609-123-6 , pp. 109–111 and 176–177.