A little help

Drawing Machines

Elinga, Perspective Box, 1660

When you are in front of a view of Venice painted by Canaletto, the first thing you think is: “How did he do it?” These paintings are tiny, portable so that they could be taken by the Grand Tour’s Englishmen, and they have an impossible precision. They are so precise that we could find out where he painted them from and do them again. Of course, Venice has not changed much since XVIII c.

Camera obscura (Wikipedia)

But how did he do it? We know he used the camera obscura, the great-grandmother of our cameras. It consists in a set of lenses and a mirror in a 45º angle, with which the image you are going to draw reflects on the paper. It’s a little help so that his “vedute” would be more loyal to reality and work as souvenir at the same time.

Dürer, 1525

Since ever artists felt the need to reproduce reality as it’s seen and applied their geometrical knowledge and perspective onto their works, they looked for tools easing their job. We would call this “technological advances” nowadays. These researches were developed quite early in the world of Optic: the Arabic wise man Ibn al-Haytham, based on Aristotle, set the basics. Later, Roger Bacon, in the Middle Ages, but it was in Renaissance when this knowledge was applied to creating artifacts to help at drawing. Brunelleschi and Alberti, both architects, and of course, Leonardo, all experimented with lenses. Dürer also was concerned by this topic and he wrote about his invention: an artifact with a rack that worked as grid.

Elinga, Interieur with painter, lady reading and maid recurring,
1665

The ones that took the most steps farther were the Netherlanders. We know they used the camera obscura. It was not a new invention, it was already used in Middle Ages and Renaissance, but they were the ones developing a biconvex lens, which well polished, gave a clear image, and which they added to the artifact. If you look at the Elinga’s painting’ borders, you will see that the lines are curvy and don’t fit in an Italian-like lineal perspective. 

Vermeer, The Music Lesson, 1662 (Detail)

We don’t know much about Vermeer, but we can claim he used it. Look at the mirror in this painting: we can see at the bottom his camera obscura reflected; we can even imagine where he was placed while drawing. Moreover, he was friends with Leeuwenhoek, who developed the microscope: we can imagine their conversations about the usage of lenses… In 1686 Zahn built the first portable camera obscura and there we have Canaletto installing it in front of the Grand Canal. But not everybody liked to be seen using it: artists feared anybody would doubt about their skills… and in fact, Sir Reynolds had one that looked like a book when folded!

Hoogstraten, View of a
Corridor, 1662 (Wikipedia)

But there are not only camera obscuras, there are unimaginable artifacts, like the ones called “perspective boxes”: a set of boxes with which you can see the same scenario with different point of views, a wonder of wit. Hoogstraten, Rembrandt’s disciple, had achieved such perfection painting this scene in a cupboard’s door that a visitor actually thought it was a real aisle.

Velázquez had in his atelier mirrors and measuring tools (and a couple books about Optics). Mirrors were used since ever, and if you don’t believe it, take a look at Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait. 

Claude's Glass, 1775
(Victoria & Albrt Museum)

Another famous one is the Claude’s Mirror, by Claude Lorrain: a black painted glass where we can check out the valeur of the colors we are painting.

Camera lucida, 1807
(Wikipedia)

To me, the most interesting one is the “lucid camera”: it consists in a prism and a mirror, which reproduces virtually the image you want to draw on the paper! 

Nowdays many artists use projectors to get the image on their canvases. This is just taking a picture we have got saved on our phones or computers onto the canvas. Just take into account that already Delacroix, Ingres and Degas used pictures to paint…, obviously not with same sharpness and amount of pixels as we are used to.

Nowadays, not all the artists want to recognise they go to these little helps, just as Sir Reynolds hid his camera obscura.

Canaletto, Il Canale Grande,1740

Sources: Hockney, D. Secret Knowledge. London, Thames & Hudson, 2009;

Nerdinger, W. Elemente künstlerischer Gestaltung. München, Martin Lurz V., 1986;

Panofsky, E. La perspectiva como forma simbólica. Barcelona, Tusquets, 2010;

personal notes

The National Gallery; Hoogstraten's perspective box

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