It is a variant of the mise en abîme used in blazoning, but applied to art, design and optical effects. The origin of the name is in the advertising, more precisely in the packaging of the cocoa powder of the Dutch food Droste, which since the beginning of the twentieth century showed a nanny with a tray in her hands, and in it there was a cocoa container with the same image of the nanny carrying the cocoa container, in which the same design is shown again; which in theory repeats the images one inside the other infinitely (or as far as the resolution of the print reaches). This feature in a well-known product in its time inspired dutch journalist Nico Scheepmaker to popularize in the 1970s the name 'Droste effect' for this recursion in designs with a meta-reference. See mise in abyme .
