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Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
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Join one of the most influential artists of our time as he investigates the painting techniques of the Old Masters. Hockney’s extensive research led him to conclude that artists such as Caravaggio, Velázquez, da Vinci, and other hyperrealists actually used optics and lenses to create their masterpieces.In this passionate yet pithy book, Hockney takes readers on a journey o
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Paperback, New & Expanded Edition, 336 pages
Published
October 5th 2006
by Avery
(first published 2001)
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Start your review of Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters

Oct 17, 2014
Lois Bujold
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in art, optics, or how the world is seen
Recommended to Lois by:
mentioned in documentary film
I came to this via the film Tim's Vermeer and the excellence of my county library.
Well, this is certainly not a book one could read on a Kindle. Hockney works a compelling example of "show, don't tell", though to be fair he does both. The book opens with a long section of large-format and well-reproduced pictures of paintings, essential to and the foundation of his arguments, goes on to a section of select quotes from historical documents about the uses of mirrors and lenses from Roman times onw ...more

Remarkable! Hockney convincingly demonstrates that, starting around 1430, artists used optical devices to capture figures and landscapes realistically. This accounts for distortions in perspective and Caravagio-like shadows because of the strong light needed to use lenses.
Impressionists and post-impressionists wanted to do something new and so became post-lens artists. This is a subject that has profound implications for the translation of three dimensional reality into two dimensions as is done ...more
Impressionists and post-impressionists wanted to do something new and so became post-lens artists. This is a subject that has profound implications for the translation of three dimensional reality into two dimensions as is done ...more

This handsome publication sets down for the record David Hockney's long and detailed exploration of the techniques and technologies that may have been used by the great masters of European painting. He concentrates on the 500 year period from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. In the process one is led to a complete re-evaluation and re-appreciation of their work.
The journey was not simple or straightforward. It began with a close examination of Ingres, ...more
The journey was not simple or straightforward. It began with a close examination of Ingres, ...more

Great book.
I love controversy especially when it targets the art world, when it stirs up the way we perceive and look at great masterful works of art; when it throws a whole new massive spanner into the works.
Optics or eyeballed?
That is the question.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I savoured it because of the artwork and the new light shining on them. (I still find myself today picking it up to satisfy a looming question, checking out uncertainties.)
The author has written a good book wit ...more
I love controversy especially when it targets the art world, when it stirs up the way we perceive and look at great masterful works of art; when it throws a whole new massive spanner into the works.
Optics or eyeballed?
That is the question.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I savoured it because of the artwork and the new light shining on them. (I still find myself today picking it up to satisfy a looming question, checking out uncertainties.)
The author has written a good book wit ...more

Interesting study into some of the techniques of the old masters. It turns most of them were probably more entrepreneurial than artistic. In the early 1400s there is a sudden rise of photo-realism in Flemish painting -- Hockney posits that this is b/c of the use of lenses and mirrors. He goes on to explain how medieval artisans essentially embraced automation by obviating the need of sketching the subject they were going to paint. In the past, this was a painstaking task of eyeballing where the
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This is one of the most remarkable books I can recall ever reading about any subject. It is so iconoclastic and written with such authority by a person so accomplished as a practitioner in the field he examines that the experience it provides is unique and the euphoria it induces is real.
Beginning with Van Eyck and heading forward through most every painter of note - Caravaggio, Velazquez and Vermeer most of all - they all used optics, lenses specifically, to accomplish the miracles they created ...more
Beginning with Van Eyck and heading forward through most every painter of note - Caravaggio, Velazquez and Vermeer most of all - they all used optics, lenses specifically, to accomplish the miracles they created ...more

One of the best books about art, because there is a specific theory directly tied to how artwork is created and then many illustrations are deployed to prove the theory. Topics like biography, motivation, symbolism, etc are put to the side to focus on how artists see. The discussion on drawing with camera lucida is interesting, as Hockney brings up the concept that certain lines look more confident, but also he can see duration of time in lines (which lines were drawn at certain speeds). Hockney
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Researched and written by British artist David Hockney, this is a compelling book which explores the "how" of painting historically. Hockney's thesis is that artists — particularly those working in the Dutch and Flemish heyday like Van Eyck or Rembrandt — were aided by lenses, optics, and mirrors to help them craft realistic artworks.
In this visual essay, Hockney proposes that these high-tech methods date back hundreds of years further back than the common conception among art historians. The b ...more
In this visual essay, Hockney proposes that these high-tech methods date back hundreds of years further back than the common conception among art historians. The b ...more

Pointed out some necessary things for a painter to realize. I sort of understood in general terms that old masters used particular techniques to produce some of the most realistic looking paintings ever made, but this told of those on the specific level when and why they used them and most importantly how. Optics played an important role in the development of old masters techniques and how those really shaped the reasoning and purpose of painting from the 17th century of painting to now. Hockney
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An interesting read, bad photoshop art has a long history.
The controversy is fun reading, see Wikipedia for details. On that note many of the paintings in the book are located near where I live and having inspected them after reading this book I can see optical distortion caused by the use of simple lenses, based on my image processing and optical design experience. Critics of the theory will have to explain how a 15th century artist "faked" that look. Unless of course the actual paintings don' ...more
The controversy is fun reading, see Wikipedia for details. On that note many of the paintings in the book are located near where I live and having inspected them after reading this book I can see optical distortion caused by the use of simple lenses, based on my image processing and optical design experience. Critics of the theory will have to explain how a 15th century artist "faked" that look. Unless of course the actual paintings don' ...more

This was a very interesting book. Hockney's evidence that painters used optical devices to create almost photographic images on canvas is compelling. At the same time, there are artists that can do this by "eyeballing." Some of their work is in Aaron Brothers in the " How to Draw _______" section. I have no doubt that Hockney is correct. This is the most interesting art history book I have read. I enjoyed reading the way Hockney meticulously described and duplicated the processes used by master
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Aug 12, 2012
Alison
added it
I return to this book a lot. I keep it next to my bed. AMazing!

Before you go to another art gallery with European painting from between 1400 to the impressionists, read "Secret Knowledge". This book will literally give you an entirely new lens for seeing and appreciating what is happening. This book mounts a compelling argument that lenses and particularly mirrors were used to aide artists in composition from near the dawn of perspective drawing.
As a result of reading this book, you will understand the improvements in renderings of the facial proportion, f ...more
As a result of reading this book, you will understand the improvements in renderings of the facial proportion, f ...more

I've finished the "visual evidence" section, and I've gotta say that I'm pretty convinced. Like many others, I was brought here by the doc "Tim's Vermeer" - but I was delightfully surprised that Vermeer wasn't the only focus of Hockney's book. If anything, Caravaggio seems like one of the main targets.
As an artist myself (amateur), I find Hockney's ideas oddly comforting, since it means that the great masters so many of us admire were just as likely to resort to clever tricks as the rest of us. ...more
As an artist myself (amateur), I find Hockney's ideas oddly comforting, since it means that the great masters so many of us admire were just as likely to resort to clever tricks as the rest of us. ...more

I can rate this before getting anywhere near the last page because it's a parallel of two BBC documentaries made in 2001 that details Hockney's theory that many of the old masters used contemporaneously new technology as drawing and painting aids. The camera lucida for instance that allows for an image to be visible within a lens positioned over paper and that the artist can see to 'trace', and later the camera obscura that uses a larger lens to project an image onto a canvas or wood support in
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A really interesting argument about the use of optics in European artwork from the 14th century onward, beautifully made over the course of the lavish illustrations and clever text. Do I buy it? I don't know. The influence of optics in some cases seems very strong, but as the book goes on, I got the feeling that Hockney had "optics on the brain" and was seeing them everywhere, even places that didn't (to me) look very compelling. I completely buy that Caravaggio probably used optics, for example
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His ideas on the Camera Obscura are fascinating but I'm doubtful that all of them use that technique. Hockney should realize, Art which in Ancient Greek means skill of hand. One can also read the works on Leonardo da Vinci and come to the conclusion that most masters had mastered the seeing process and were utilizing a plethora of techniques to invoke the seeing process and depending less on the camera Obscura.
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I am late to the party, having discovered this book at my local library. I flat-out loved it and felt like I was having a conversation with David Hockney about that age old question...How DID they DO that? I am and have been for quite some time a fan of David Hockney's in regards to drawing and design skills, his use of pattern and color, his early adoption of iPads for painting, and his willingness to share information...he has some great educational content for young kids. I think of him as ve
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What a fascinating book. There are some grumpy reviews about it around the web, but I think a little controversy just adds to the mystery. The author demonstrates with many fascinating examples how artists may have used lenses to project images to aid in their painting. I've never thought so much about HOW art is created, and I've also never really thought about this potential bridge between photography and film and painting and drawing. I've never really been a huge art museum person, much as I
...more

the controversial theory Hockney puts forth about Renaissance painters in this book is actually beyond the controversy. historians and theorists have been fighting about this and tearing him (and each other) apart since this book came out, but it doesn't have anything to do with them. as a painter, this book speaks to me as exactly what he purports it to be: secret knowledge that has been lost to modernity. theorists might have to deny it in order to maintain the legitimacy of the old masters; i
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I waited forever for this book. It was unavailable at the library and even Amazon had only a few copies. It was worth the wait.
I remember the New Yorker article detailing Hockney's "discovery" in 2000. Yes, lenses, mirrors and art history can be memorable for 15 years!
Hockney's passion is so compelling and contagious and the best part is, this is not an academic book. He's not condescending even when he brings in the experts. We see what he sees-- the whole first half of the book are painting re ...more
I remember the New Yorker article detailing Hockney's "discovery" in 2000. Yes, lenses, mirrors and art history can be memorable for 15 years!
Hockney's passion is so compelling and contagious and the best part is, this is not an academic book. He's not condescending even when he brings in the experts. We see what he sees-- the whole first half of the book are painting re ...more

An amazingly fast or incredibly detailed read, depending on your mood. Either way it is engaging and makes a strong case for the use of optical enhancements being used by artists considerably more than perhaps anticipated. The idea that was more remarkable for me was to learn the mechanics of building the physical space that is required to make the optics work and the close examination of subtle perspective and depth of field difference to show how sectioned paintings using these techniques ar ...more

This is a very beautifully published book with stunning photos and very strong thesis. Although I don't agree with all of Hockney's ideas (some of his examples and comparisons are biased. It's true that the whole range of optical instruments will help you to make more precise drawings but they won't apply the paint for you. None of the instruments mentioned by Hockney would help in actual painting) I can fully appreciate all the work he put into it and reccomend this book to everyone as a very i
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I learned so much about painting today. The book is full of brilliant insights such as this quote.
"All drawn lines have a speed that can usually be deduced: they have a beginning and an end, and therefore represent time, as well as space. Even a tracing of a photograph contains more 'time' then the original photograph (which represents just a fraction of a second), because the hand takes time to do it." ...more
"All drawn lines have a speed that can usually be deduced: they have a beginning and an end, and therefore represent time, as well as space. Even a tracing of a photograph contains more 'time' then the original photograph (which represents just a fraction of a second), because the hand takes time to do it." ...more
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David Hockney was born in Bradford, England, on July 9, 1937. He loved books and was interested in art from an early age, admiring Picasso, Matisse and Fragonard. His parents encouraged their son’s artistic exploration, and gave him the freedom to doodle and daydream.
Hockney attended the Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957. Then, because he was a conscientious objector to military service, h ...more
Hockney attended the Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957. Then, because he was a conscientious objector to military service, h ...more
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