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Vermeer's camera : uncovering the truth behind the masterpieces / Philip Steadman
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Vermeer's camera : uncovering the truth behind the masterpieces / Philip Steadman

by Philip Steadman

This study examines the theory that Vermeer used a camera obscura to achieve his distinctive precision and lighting. It analyses the technical qualities of his paintings to explain how optical devices may have influenced his composition and perspective.

Accession 11383 ISBN 9780192159670 Publisher Oxford University Press
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Art Authors Biography Economics Education Painting Photography Science
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Hard Back
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Identity

name→ title
Vermeer's camera : uncovering the truth behind the masterpieces / Philip Steadman
vernon_id
15161
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11383
vernon_slug
vermeers-camera-uncovering-the-truth-behind-the-masterpieces-philip-steadman

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isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)
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Descriptive

production_date
2001 {copyright}
object_type
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object_status
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brief_description
Philip Steadman traces the development of the camera obscura--first described by Leonaro da Vinci--weighs the arguments that scholars have made for and against Vermeer's use of the camera, and offers a fascinating examination of the paintings themselves and what they alone can tell us of Vermeer's technique. Vermeer left no record of his method and indeed we know almost nothing of the man nor of how he worked. But by a close and illuminating study of the paintings Steadman concludes that Vermeer did use the camera obscura and shows how the inherent defects in this primitive device enabled Vermeer to achieve some remarkable effects--the slight blurring of image, the absence of sharp lines, the peculiar illusion not of closeness but of distance in the domestic scenes. Steadman argues that the use of the camera also explains some previously unexplainable qualities of Vermeer's art, such as the absence of conventional drawing, the pattern of underpainting in areas of pure tone, the pervasive feeling of reticence that suffuses his canvases, and the almost magical sense that Vermeer is painting not objects but light itself.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Philip Steadman
tags→ tags
Art, Arts, Science, Painting, Graphic arts, Persons, Artists, Technology, Art -- History, Camera obscuras, Optical instruments, Physical instruments, Scientific apparatus and instruments, Research -- Equipment and supplies, Art and technology
subject_people
Johannes Vermeer (b.1632, d.1675)
subject_objects
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