3/29/10

Did Renaissance painters 'cheat' with optical aids? - Samuel Reich, NewScientist




"IT IS one of the most provocative suggestions in art history: did some Renaissance artists use lenses or mirrors to help them paint more accurately? Analysis of a 16th-century artwork dubbed a "Rosetta stone" for optical techniques suggests they did.

The theory that Renaissance artists used optical projection was proposed in 2000 by artist David Hockney and optical scientist Charles Falco of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Most art historians have yet to be convinced..."  - Samuel Reich, New Scientist

Link Full Text, Samuel Reich, "Did Renaissance painters cheat with optical aids?", New Scientist
Image: Lorenzo Lotto, Husband and Wife, Oil, 1523, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

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