1Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces
In Vermeer's Camera, 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.
Drawing on a wealth of Vermeer research and displaying an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtleties of the work itself, Philip Steadman offers in Vermeer's Camera a fresh perspective on some of the most enchanting paintings ever created.
Recommended by Jane Jelley.Philip Steadman also took a practical approach in his book Vermeer’s Camera (2001) to determine whether Vermeer used a lens. The reason people think it possible, or even likely, is because Vermeer’s work has qualities that stand out, qualities which are unusual, and which could be related to the use of optics. In particular we see an extraordinary sensitivity to light, and a sense that we are looking at moments frozen in time. There are other unusual features too. There are few lines, mostly just blurry edges; there are changes in focus; and shifts in scale. There are also little highlight dots in his pictures, which are unusual; and in the lowest layer there’s a lack of compositional line, unlike in the underpaintings of other Old Master painters of his day. Vermeer’s painting is composed of shapes, rather than lines. [source]
