An optical arrangement, in particular a microlithographic projection printing installation, has in particular a slot-shaped image field or rotationally non-symmetrical illumination. An optical element (1) is therefore acted upon in a rotationally non-symmetrical manner by the radiation of the light source. A compensating light supply device (11, 14 to 19) is optically coupled via the peripheral surface (13) of the optical element (1) to the latter. It supplies compensating light (16, 12) to the optical element (1) in such a way that the temperature distribution in the optical element (1), which arises as a result of cumulative heating of the optical element (1) with projection light (2) and compensating light (12), is at least partially homogenized. In said manner image defects induced by the projection light are corrected.