Wachtkamer in het Palacio de San Telmo in Sevilla 1862 - 1876

Jean Andrieu captured the 'Waiting Room in the Palacio de San Telmo in Seville' in a stereoscopic print, its sepia tones lending a sense of faded grandeur. The composition is structured around a play of interior spaces, where an anteroom gives way to a long enfilade, inviting the eye deep into the palace. Andrieu’s photograph, however, offers more than just a depiction of space; it engages with the semiotics of power and display. The meticulously arranged chairs and the framed artworks on the walls speak to the formal protocols of aristocratic life. This image destabilizes our understanding of space by presenting a doubled perspective, prompting questions about authenticity and representation. The stereoscopic format emphasizes depth, transforming the two-dimensional image into an immersive experience, a kind of early virtual reality. Ultimately, Andrieu’s work, with its focus on architectural space and depth, challenges fixed notions of perspective, asking us to reconsider how meaning is constructed through visual representation.