Vermeer DID use mirrors and projections to create ultra-realistic paintings

[Heather]

*I did post this article in another thread introducing artists, thread Vermeer*

Mystery of Vermeer's masterpieces solved: Dutch master DID use mirrors and projections to create ultra-realistic paintings
By Victoria Woollaston

-Johannes Vermeer was renowned for his realistic 17th century paintings

-In 2006 artist David Hockney accused him of using a camera obscura

-This would have made it easier to paint details and capture colour variations

-Tim Jenison spent the past decade trying to recreate Vermeer’s Music Room

-He is now 95 per cent sure Vermeer used a lens and mirror contraption – proving Hockney’s theory

Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer was revered for his strikingly realistic 17th century paintings because they were able to capture light and detail like never before.

Yet in 2006 fellow artist David Hockney stirred up controversy by claiming Vermeer was only able to paint this well because he used a lens and mirror contraption – similar to a camera obscura.

Since then art critics have come out in support of both Vermeer and Hockney, but one inventor now claims to have finally solved the mystery – and he is 95 per cent sure Hockney’s theories are correct.


The Music Lesson

Inventor Tim Jenison, 58, was given Hockney’s book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by his daughter in 2002, according to a report in Vanity Fair.

Jenison claimed he had a hunch that what Hockney was saying about Vermeer was true and then one day while in the bath, he realised that the images could be created by projecting the subject through a lens onto a mirror that would have been positioned in Vermeer’s line of sight.

The Texas-born production editor then traveled to Amsterdam to look at Vermeer’s work, studied the locations where Vermeer painted in his hometown of Delft, and learned to read Dutch.

'Looking at their Vermeers,' he said 'I had an epiphany.'

'The photographic tone is what jumped out at me. Why was Vermeer so realistic? Because he got the (colour) values right.'

Jenison also tested out various contraptions to discover which was the most likely.

Video: Magician Teller discusses Tim Jenison's Vermeer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co...


A camera obscura is based on the principle that when some of the rays reflected from a bright subject pass through a small hole in thin material, they reform as an upside down on a surface parallel to the hole. In 2006 artist David Hockney accused Vermeer of using a contraption similar to this

One of the strongest counterarguments against Hockney’s claims was that if Vermeer had used a camera obscura, the image would have been upside down, but Jenison discovered that using a second mirror solved this problem.

His final design, which Jenison claims he is 95 per cent sure would have been how Vermeer would had painted his masterpieces, involves two mirrors and a four-inch lens.

The image is projected through the lens onto a 7-inch concave mirror fixed to the wall opposite. This mirror bounces the image onto a smaller 2 x 4-inch mirror situated next to the canvas.

If Vermeer used this system, he would have been able to paint with little movement of his head and capture the light and detail more accurately.


Early models of the camera obscura were large; comprising either a whole darkened room or a tent. By the 18th century, following developments by Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke, more easily portable models became available

To test his theory, Jenison has spent the past decade – a total of 220 hours - recreating the room Vermeer would have painted in and attempting to recreate his 1662 painting The Music Lesson.

He also made lenses that would have been made using 17th century techniques and only painted with pigments available in the late 1600s.

American illusionists Penn and Teller installed cameras in Jenison's studio to record everything.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...