I spent a lot of time wondering how Leonor Fini achieved this special effect in her paintings, whereby the reflection of each object looks larger than the object itself -- contrary to geometrical optics (unless the surface of the water is curved up as a convex mirror). CGI? Old-fashioned double exposure?The answer turns out to be simple: Fini created the reflecting pool as a kind of stage set, mounted on a spindle and rotated on a vertical axis so that centrifugal forces formed the water into a parabolic dish.
Even so, the most expensive special effect in surrealist painting is still the time that Dali hired a DC-9 to use as a studio, so he could paint during the 25-second periods of weightlessness while the plane followed a parabolic path.
BONUS non-geometrical optics from Jeffrey Smart.
