in news:3da300eb$1@news.povray.org Ive wrote:

> Yes, I know the rumours about his use of a camera obscura. In my
> opinion, this is not true.

If he did he wasn't the only one ...

> But anyway, if he has used such advanced technologies and optical
> utilities, 

... there was a lot more technology available these days than one may 
think. Doing this kind of work with a normal, pinhole, camera obscura is 
near impossible due to the lack of strong light sources. But lenses 
where already available, Christiaan Huygens (1624 - 1695) was one of the 
great lens grinders of his time. Vermeer (1632 - 1675) may have been 
very well aware of these tools. It is for example known that Rembrand 
(1606 - 1669) used lenses and has met Huygens.

A great book on all this is:
Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
by David Hockney
Viking Press; ISBN: 0670030260

There also was a great documentary on the subject on the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1595979.stm

Ingo

Post a reply to this message