Website Goals

Las Parcas, circa 1820-23, by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), P0757. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	Foundation of Holy María Maggiore of Rome. II. The Patrician reveals his dream to the Pope Liberio by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 –1682), P0995. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	The Cure of Folly, The Surgeon, the Extraction of the Fool's Stone, 1556, by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (1500-1566), P1541. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	The Contemporary Poets. A Reading of Zorilla at the Painter's Studio. Chronology, 1846 by Antonio María Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, (1806-1857), P4299. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	Table covered with paintings, a mechanical violin, books and other objects in trompe l’oeil, 1779 by Charles-Joseph Flipart (1721-1797), P7823. ©Museo Nacional del Prado
All the special images on this page are courtesy of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

• To share images of the finest and most interesting historic vision aids in both private and public collections from around the world.
• To share images of some of the greatest artwork showing vision aids, especially antique eyeglasses.
• To educate interested visitors and professionals and thereby stimulate further research regarding vision aids and their history.
• To increase public awareness and thereby nurture a deeper appreciation in general for this topic.
• To accumulate some of the wealth of knowledge which exists regarding antique vision aids.
• To introduce the OAICC (international) and the OHS (American), the two important collectors’ clubs.
• To highlight the impact the optical lens has had on civilization over the last 720 years.
• To become an important repository of data and information related to many of the most significant optical objects in existence in the world.
• To be a site where major discoveries of lost and missing optical treasures of all sorts, including artwork, can be shared with an interested public.
• To complement other worthwhile websites which have information on the topic of the optical lens.
• To create a forum where scholarly people can have a dynamic exchange of information and ideas.
• To become, in time, a general meeting place for curators, eye professionals, art enthusiasts, collectors and/or anyone else interested in the history of the optical lens

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