The Retrospectroscope was made using a single sheet of Plexiglas 5 ft. in diameter, and was mounted directly on a stand and illuminated from behind. As an optical device, its function was to create the illusion of movement utilizing large format still images. The "Retrospectroscope" apparatus has gone through many incarnations, its presence belies the processes that have created it. As a pre-cinematic device, it traces an evolutionary trajectory, encircling the viewer in a procession of flickering fantasies of fragmented lyricism. This re-invention simulates the illusion of the analysis of motion to recall early mysteries of the quest for this very discovery now taken for granted; the "Muses of Cinema" represented by the female figures on the disk, have emerged from a dark Neoclassical past.