Trumpe l’oeil

A friend just forwarded the image above, which he claims is an actual painting.  He also claims the image has gone viral in the most florid precincts of wingnuttia, although I’m not getting out of the boat to check.

I don’t know the painting’s title, and I’m fascinated by various the hermeneutic possibilities it suggests in this relatively anonymous state.

I’m eager to read your interpretive efforts, and will start the conversation with a proverb loosely translated from the Chinese:

Light a man a fire and you will keep him warm for a few hours

Light a man on fire and you will keep him warm for the rest of his life.