Home/Symbols/Opera glassesOpera glasses SymbolismTools of looking and social surveillance; signify spectatorship and who controls the gaze.Common ThemesThe modern lens: urban life & speedMedium reflexivity (art about art)Leisure & recreationGender & sexualityFashion & adornmentClass & inequalityArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe LogePierre-Auguste Renoir (1874)Renoir’s The Loge (1874) turns an opera box into a <strong>stage of looking</strong>, where a woman meets our gaze while her companion scans the crowd through binoculars. The painting’s <strong>frame-within-a-frame</strong> and glittering fashion make modern Parisian leisure both alluring and self-conscious, turning spectators into spectacles <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
