20th century photorealism can be contrasted
with the similarly literal style found in trompe l'oeil
paintings of the 19th century.
However, trompe l'oeil paintings tended to be care
fully designed, very shallow-space still-lifes
with illusionistic gimmicks such as objects seeming
to lift slightly from the painting.
The photorealism movement moved beyond this double-take
illusionism to tackle deeper spatial representations
(e.g. urban landscapes) and took on much more varied
and dynamic subject matter.