Ubiquitous gaze

In art, the term silver look for a painting technique is used, which is applied to the mapping of people in frontal view or three-quarter profile. The eye position (or the position of the irises of both eyes ) is shown not exactly symmetrical, but shifted slightly toward the center. The effect of this technique is that the viewer the impression is conveyed to the person depicted look directly at him and would follow him even when moving with the look. One of the first works in which this technique was used, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

The invention of the silver overview can be found in Western painting in the High Renaissance, late 15th to early 16th century. Figures in older pictures rigid unnatural or look through the viewer into the distance, depending on the skills of the painter. This is noted in the peasant painting until the 19th century and not extinct to this day. Since the spread of photography from around 1850 it is generally used to seeing pictures show the effect, because the people being photographed often overlook the lens. Thus, it falls on only when the squint is not available, for example, in the above-mentioned vorneuzeitlicher painting, children's drawings and naive art.

That the reception of the silver gaze depends on the viewing habits, also show Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period, although they also use this technique, but often excessive for the Western viewer squint.

• Technique of painting