The emergence of the magic lantern as a tool for art historical teaching in the second half of the nineteenth century occurs within a larger context of pedagogical reform efforts that promoted visual educa-tion. This contribution looks at the infrastructural prerequisites for the large-scale dissemination of magic lantern slides at the time, which made possible the introduction of art historical slides as teaching aids. Subsequently, it presents the larger context of pedagogical debates within the field of art education at the time in Germany, which were at the basis of reform initiatives. In the final part, this article looks at the performance practice of art historical lectures with projected images, and the way they transformed the re-lationship between the teacher, the artwork as object of the teacher’s discourse, and the students.