Trompe l'oeil (French: 'deceive the eye') is painting so technically precise that the viewer momentarily believes they are seeing real, three-dimensional objects. The technique is as old as competitive painting: Pliny the Elder's Natural History records a contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius in ancient Greece — Zeuxis painted grapes so convincing that birds tried to eat them; Parrhasius painted a curtain so real that Zeuxis tried to draw it aside. Renaissance ceiling painters used it to open up architectural space — Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi in Mantua (1465–74) is the first great ceiling 'opening'. In the Dutch Golden Age, it became a game with books, letters and hanging objects. Today it appears in street art and mural painting worldwide.