Mise en abyme

In french class today, we learned about the concept of “mise en abyme”, which in art is when there is an image within another image. It creates a sort of spiral effect, where it becomes hard to tell where the end of the image is or how deep it goes. However, the part I found very interesting is that the term does not just reflet images but also stories too. The artist can use “mise en abyme” to reflect something from real life in the painting. Within the story of the image, there can be a story of something outside the painting. It can get quite complex, but it creates for a much more thoughtful piece in the end.