Many art historians believe the 17th-century Dutch Master painter Johannes Vermeer used the camera obscura.
(photo courtesy: www.essentialvermeer.com)
(photo courtesy: www.essentialvermeer.com)
The reason they believe Vermeer used camera obscura is by observing the visual effects in some of his paintings. For example, when you look at the above painting Officer and Laughing Girl,
you will notice the officer's body is nearly twice the size of the
girl. The disproportionate size is a result of seeing the scene through
a lens, in other words, a photographic perspective. If this were a
photograph rather than a painting, the size variation would not be as
noticeable. We are quite
familiar today with foreground objects appearing very large in
snapshots, but in a
17th century painting this was rather unusual. Vermeer's fellow
painters would have painted the officer and girl equally in size. This
scene is correct in the visual sense; the officer just looks so much
bigger because of his closeness to the viewer.
If you would like to read more about Vermeer and his use of camera obscura, click here for a very interesting three-part article, Vermeer and the Camera Obscura.
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This post was originally published in my blog Tutti Capolavori on July 10, 2012.
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