Optical illusions in pictures, with notes on creating your own effects

A (rather rude) example of an ambiguous image on a sixteenth century plate that Oxford's Ashmolean Museum bought in 2003.
[See commentary to picture 1]

A fun site full of brain teasers including illusions

Notice the illusionistic nail and shadow at the top of the painting. Braque wanted to emphasise that the whole of the rest of the picture is just a surface - a picture within a picture - although it's full of suggestions of relief and volume.
[See commentary to picture 25]

View this and other paintings by Magritte in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon online.
[See commentary to picture 11]

The optical illusion category of the DMOZ directory contains links to great sites on visual illusions generally.

Mid twentieth century artist Mauritz Escher's many experiments with patterns and scenes including impossible buildings, on the Escher Foundation website.
[See commentary to picture 15, 18, 22, 23]

Numerous exotic versions of impossible figures by Gerschon Elber, some multi-sided, along with a variety of pictures of real twisty three-dimensional versions of them.
[See commentary to picture 13]

Simply the world's best illusion site

A site about illusions and aesthetics

A face that can be seen as full-face or profile in this painting by Picasso in Moma, New York
[See commentary to picture 22]

Synopsis of a (seriously technical) scientific account of the glare effect.
[See commentary to picture 14]