DROSTE EFFECT
Take a close look at this picture. The woman is holding a tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a packet of cocoa, which shows her own picture holding the same items! This creates a ‘picture within a picture’ effect.
In 1904, a newly launched cocoa tin gained a lot of attention. It featured a nurse holding a tray with the same cocoa tin and a cup of hot chocolate. If you looked closely or used a magnifying glass, the “second” picture on the tin also showed the same image. This repeating picture fascinated consumers, and the cocoa tin, made by Droste, a Dutch chocolate manufacturer, became an instant hit. This technique of repeating images within smaller insets is now known as the Droste effect.
The Droste effect is a visual form of recursion. Recursion is when something repeats itself over and over again. It is a concept used in a variety of disciplines, ranging from mathematics and computer science to art.
The Droste effect was earlier known as mise en abyme, French for ‘placed in the abyss’. It meant an infinite reproduction of an image, as when one stands between two mirrors. Renowned Dutch graphic artist M C Escher used it in many of his works, such as Print Gallery and Drawing Hands.
At one time, the Droste effect was popular in product packaging. Even today, it can be seen in some products. The Laughing Cow cheese brand for instance, has a picture of a cow wearing earrings. When seen closely, the earrings are images of the package, each with the picture of the cow!
Did the Droste effect inspire the creation of the Matryoshka doll? Not really. The Matryoshka doll developed independently in 19th-century Russia. It consists of a set of wooden dolls nesting one inside the other, with each smaller doll resembling the larger one. The Droste effect is more of a visual design concept while the Matryoshka doll is a physical object.
