Did Rembrandt use mirror projections? Automatic translate

At the age of 18, Francis O’Neill (Francis O’Neill), a novice young artist, went on a trip to Europe and was struck by the masterpieces of Rembrandt, which he happened to see in major museums. Like many before him, O’Neill admired the technical accuracy of the paintings of the great master.

“I thought then: what kind of magic did this guy possess?” Said O’Neill, who works and educates students at his art studio in Oxford, England. Many years later, he seems to have found the answer to his own question, and this answer has more in common with optics than with magic.

In an article published in Optics magazine, O’Neill sets out the theory that Rembrandt created flat and concave mirrors with which he projected images of his models, including himself, onto the surface of the canvas before starting work. Following this technique, a seventeenth-century artist would be able to achieve an incredibly high degree of accuracy. Francis O’Neill’s research shows that some of Rembrandt’s most famous works may have been made using a preliminary projection. By the way, this is not the first assumption that the old masters used optics to create their most famous portraits.

In 2001, David Hockney, a well-known British artist, and Charles Falco, a professor of optical science at Arizona State University, published a book stating that some artists secretly used mirrors and lenses to create hyperrealistic paintings starting already since the Renaissance. Their theory, known as the Hockney-Falco thesis, has sparked controversy among scholars and art historians. One of the most outspoken critics of the theory, David G. Stork, a specialist in optics, claimed to have found inaccuracies in the analysis of paintings by Hockney and Falco. In turn, Falco accused Stork of falsifying data (Stork’s colleagues at Stanford University considered Falco’s allegations unfounded at that time).

After reading Hockney-Falco’s dissertation, O’Neill spent decades studying Rembrandt’s works, which, in his opinion, have many features related to the use of optics, such as, for example, higher resolution in the center and blurriness at the edges. O’Neill decided to try the mirror trick himself to get the best evidence for his theory. He discovered that a special system of mirrors allows you to project an inverted image onto a metal plate or canvas. In an article he co-authored with Sofia Palazzo Corner, an independent researcher from London, O’Neill focuses on Rembrandt’s repetitive tricks that indicate the use of mirrors by the Dutch artist, especially when creating self-portraits. Among these techniques are the use of chiaroscuro, the contrast of light and darkness, which corresponds to the lighting conditions necessary for drawing up a projection.

“The face should be brightly lit while the rest of the room is in the shade. A similar effect is obtained if you watch something on a graphic projector, ”O’Neill explains.

The second evidence was Rembrandt’s self-portrait gaze, offset from the center. This suggests that the artist may have looked at the projection surface slightly to the side, and not directly at the flat mirror. According to O’Neill, the projection could greatly facilitate the artist’s work on animated self-portraits, for example, on the painting “Rembrandt Laughing”, written around 1628.

“If Rembrandt did not use projection, he would have to be constantly with a laughing expression on his face - a physical exercise that seems very extreme,” says O’Neill. - "If you use the projection, it is enough just to move your eyes."

Dr. Falco praised the evidence gathered by O’Neill. But a new study did not convince the main critic, Dr. Stork, who appealed to the fact that any image obtained with the help of mirrors would be projected upside down.

“If the artist paints in an inverted position, then after he sets the painting normally, all strokes will go from bottom to top. Not one of Rembrandt’s paintings has this, ”says Stork.

In favor of the arguments, Stork also says that there is not a single historical document that would testify to the use of optical designs by Rembrandt.

“There were always a lot of people in Rembrandt’s workshop, and not one of them talked about using optics? It seems unbelievable, ”Dr. Stork argues.

O’Neill, however, believes that the use of optics was quite common at the time of Rembrandt, and the presence of mirrors in an art studio is not something supernatural, worthy of a separate mention. It is possible that Rembrandt used optics to achieve the correct proportions and arrangement of parts, and then, on his own, finished his paintings, which explains the absence of smears from the bottom to the top.

“Even if he used optics, Rembrandt still deserves the title of great artist,” notes O’Neill. “People accuse me of jealousy or trying to discredit Rembrandt, but that’s not exactly what I’m trying to do,” he continues.

Far from trying to undermine the authority of artists such as Rembrandt, O’Neill is interested in showing them also as scientists.

“At the same time, when scientists just started using lenses to look at things disproportionately small through microscopes and stars through telescopes, artists used them to explore the world around them,” concludes Francis O’Neill.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru