Vermeer's paintings: are they derived from 350 year old colo

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 06-10-2014 10:59 PM

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/10/vermee ... ht-be.html

Vermeer's paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs

Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the art world:  How did Dutch master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Here's how he conducted his experiment.

[...]

Vermeer's paintings are legendary for their realism, and many have speculated that he must have used some sort of optical technology, like the camera obscura, to get that result.

It's common knowledge that you can trace the images projected on the screen of a camera obscura, which is basically a black box with a lens mounted on one side. This helps you get the size and shapes of things established on the canvas. Intuitively it seems that you could paint colors right on the projected image and get a photoreal result.

In fact, this does not work. If you try it, you'll see why. The light projected by the lens obscures the color of the paint you are applying to the canvas. It makes the paint look too dark and too colorful. You must constantly turn on the light to see what color you have actually painted. There is simply no way to accurately compare the paint color to the projection. They interfere with each other.

Looking at Vermeer's paintings, it seemed to me that he must have had a way to not only trace the shapes, but capture the colors of a projected image. If he could do that, his paintings might be a form of photography, achieved not with film and chemicals, but with the human hand. Vermeer's paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 06-10-2014 11:31 PM

Riddick · Post by **Riddick** » 06-11-2014 12:50 AM

All this talk of Vermeer makes me hungry for more great works!

Methinks tomorrow I'll hit one of those All You Can Eat Art Galleries.

Post by **Fan** » 06-11-2014 01:09 PM

wonder if this is relevant, was looking into these the other day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 06-11-2014 03:32 PM

Fan wrote: wonder if this is relevant, was looking into these the other day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida

Totally relevant. It is theorized that a modified lucida was used by Vermeer.

Post by **Fan** » 06-11-2014 03:50 PM

I saw this exhibition when I was in Amsterdam https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-t ... es-vermeer

It is good stuff, not completely my cup of tea, but you can't help but be struck by the techniques he used.