Martin Engelbrecht's optical theater presents a brilliantly colored, three-dimensional scene of chaos and devastation. Originally accompanied by a wooden stand slotted to hold the cards, the theater consists of seven etchings that form a perspective view of the destruction of a city by earthquake. Presumably that city is Lisbon, Portugal, which was hit by a major earthquake in 1755. The extent of this disaster reverberated throughout Europe, undermining the Enlightenment belief in a beneficent and orderly universe.