Vermeer and the Camera Obscura, Part One

The camera obscura has fascinated thinkers, artists, and scientists for centuries, leading to a rich and varied body of literature that spans multiple disciplines. Historians of science like Joseph Needham and Mark Smith have traced the early developments in optics, revealing how Chinese and Islamic scholars laid the foundation for our understanding of this optical phenomenon. These historical accounts often dovetail with the works of David C. Lindberg and others, who delve into the European tradition, exploring how luminaries like Roger Bacon and Johannes Kepler furthered the scientific understanding of optical imagery.

But the camera obscura is not just a scientific instrument; it is also a compelling metaphor that has captivated philosophers and theorists. This angle is often explored in philosophical literature that grapples with questions of perception, knowledge, and even the nature of existence itself.

In the realm of art history, scholars such as Philip Steadman have illuminated how artists like Johannes Vermeer may have used the camera obscura as an aid to achieve astonishing levels of detail in their work. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and others extend this line of inquiry, examining how the camera obscura influenced not only individual artists but also entire artistic movements, especially as it led to the development of photography.

The modern and technical aspects of the camera obscura are also well-documented. Whether it is academic papers dissecting the intricate mechanics of light and shadow or popular science articles aimed at a general audience, this body of literature continues to grow. Some include practical guides for building your own camera obscura, adding a hands-on dimension to the theoretical and historical texts.

EV SURVEY

Did Vermeer use an optical device called the "camera obscura" as an aid to his painting ?

Publications

AYCOUGH, James. A short account of the eye and nature of vision. Chiefly designed to illustrate the use and advantage of spectacles. Wherein are laid down rules for chusing glasses proper for remedying all the different defects of sight. As also some reasons for preferring a particular kind of glass, fitter than any other made use of for that purpose. London: Printed by E. Say for A. Strahan, 1755.
BARBARO, Daniele. Pratica della Perspettiva. Venice: Camillo and Rutilio Borgominier, 1568-1569.
BEURS, Willem. De groote waereld in ’t kleen geschildert. Amsterdam: Johannes van Gillis Janssonius van Waesberge, 1692.
BETTEIN, Mario. Apiaria Universae Philosophiae Mathematicae. Bologna, 1642.
BLANC, J. Peindre et penser le peinture au XVIIe siècle. La théorie de l’art de Samuel van Hoogstraten. Bern: Verlag Peter Lang, 2008.
BLANC, J. "Works in Progress: Painting and Modelling in 17th-century Holland." Art History 39, no. 2 (2016): 234-253.
BRUSAIT, Celeste. "Introduction." In Samuel van Hoogstraten's Introduction to the World of Painting, edited by Celeste Brusati, translated by Jaap Jacobs, 1-46. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2021.
BUBB, Martine. "La camera obscura: philosophie d'un appareil." Paris 8, 2008.
CALLWAERT, Tom Jerry Guo, Guusje Harteveld, Abbie Vandivere, Elmar Eisemann, Joris Dik, and Jeroen Kalkman. "Multi-scale optical coherence tomography imaging and visualization of Vermeer’s 'Girl with a Pearl Earring.'" Optics Express 28, no. 18 (2020): 26239-26256.
CARDANO, Girolamo. De Subtilitate. Nuremburg, 1550.
CHAPMAN, H. Perry. "The Imagined Studios of Rembrandt and Vermeer." In Inventions of the Studio. Renaissance to Romanticism, edited by Michael Cole and Mary Pardo, 108-146. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
COCQUYT, Tiemen. "The Camera Obscura and the Availability of Seventeenth Century Optics–Some Notes and an Account of a Test." In Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image, edited by Wolfgang Lefèvre. Max-Planck Institute für Wissenschaftgeschichte (2007): 129-140.
COCQUYT, Tiemen. "‘Like water, That is Forced to Flow Through a Narrow Opening’: Beeckman’s Early Conceptualisation of the Telescope." Unpublished manuscript, typescript, January14, 2021.
CONSTABLE, A. Encyclopedia Britannica: Or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Enlarged and Improved, Volume 2. Edinburgh: 1824.
DA COSTA Kaufmann, Thomas. "The Perspective of Shadows: the History of the Theory of Shadow Projection." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 38 (1975): 258-275.
CRIMINISI, Antonio, Sing Bing Kang and Martin Kemp. 2004. "Reflections of Reality in Jan van Eyck and Roger Campin," Historical Methods, III, 109-121.
DARRIGOL, Olivier. A History of Optics: From Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DELLA PORTA, Giovanni Battista. Magia Naturalis (1st edition). Naples: Orazio Salviani, 1558.
DELLA PORTA, Giovanni Battista. Magia Naturalis (2nd edition). Naples: Orazio Salviani, 1589.
DELLA PORTA, Giovanni Battista. Magia Naturalis. Translated by Thomas Young and Samuel Speed. London, 1658
DELSAUTE, Jean-Luc. "The Camera Obscura and the Painting in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." In Vermeer Studies, edited by Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998.
DOBELL, C. Antony van Leeuwenhoek and His "Little Animals" London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, 1932.
ELLIS, A. "Theatre: Camera Obscura." BMJ 324, no. 7348 (May 25, 2002).
FINK, Daniel A. "Vermeer's Use of the Camera Obscura: A Comparative Study." The Art Bulletin 53 (1971).
GERNSHEIM, H., with A. Gernsheim. The History of Photography: From the Camera Obscura to the Beginning of the Modern Era. Revised edition. London: Thames and Hudson, 1969. Originally published 1955.
GOMBRICH, Ernst. Shadows. The Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art. London: National Gallery Publications, 1995.
GORMAN, Michael John. 2003. "Art, Optics and History: New Light on the Hockney Thesis." Leonardo 36 (24), 295-301.
GRABAR, Alexander, Pierre Mathey, Roman Iegorov, and Gregory Gadret. "Photorefractive camera obscura." Optics Communications 284, no. 22 (October 2011): 5361–63.
FOX, William. "Camera Obscura." Boom 3, no. 3 (2013): 38–49.
GEVEAUX, David. "Camera insecta obscura." Nature Physics 9, no. 6 (June 2013): 320.
GOWING, Lawrence. Vermeer. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.
GRAFIATI. "Academic literature on the topic 'Camera obscura.'" Grafiati. 2021.
GRIETZ, Torgny. "Camera Obscura." Rivista di Neuroradiologia 4, no. 3 (October 1991): 347.
HALE, Philip. L. Vermeer and His Time. London: Medici, 1937.
HAMMOND, John H. The Camera Obscura: A Chronicle. Bristol: Hilger, 1981.
HAMMOND, John H. and Jill Austin. The Camera Lucida in Art and Science. Bristol: Hilger, 1987.
HAMMOND, Mary Sayer. "The camera obscura: a chapter in the pre-history of photography." Ann Arbor: University microfilms international, 1987.
HELDEN, Anne van. "Camera Obscura." In The Scholarly World of Vermeer. Zwolle: Waanders, 1996.
HOCKNEY, David. Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. New York: Avery, 2001.
HOOKE, Robert. Philosophical Experiments and Observations. London: Printed by W. and J. Innys, Printers to the Royal Society, at the West end of St. Paul’s, 1726.
HUERTA, Robert D. Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers: The Parallel Search for Knowledge During the Age of Discovery. Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2003.
HUERTA, Robert. The Natural Philosophers: The Parallel Search for Knowledge during the Age of Discovery. Bucknell University Press, 2003.
HYAAT, Mayor A. "The Photographic Eye." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new series, vol. 1 (1946): 15–26.
JANSON, Jonathan. Looking over Vermeer’s Shoulder: Seventeenth-century Painting Techniques, Concepts and Studio Practices with Particular Focus on the Work of Johannes Vermeer Part I, II, III. Self-published, Essential Vermeer, 2020.
JELLEY, Jane. "From Perception to Paint: The Practical Use of the Camera Obscura in the Time of Vermeer." Art and Perception, July 2013.
KEMP, Martin. The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
KERN, Ulrike. "Light and Shadow, Clouds and Sunrays: The Concept of Reddering in Netherlandish Art." Oud Holland 124, no. 1 (2011): 209-230.
KERN, Ulrike. Light and Shade in Dutch and Flemish Art. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014.
KERSTEN, Michiel C.C. "Pieter de Hooch and Delft Genre Painting 1650-1675." In Delft Masters, Vermeer’s Contemporaries: Illusionism through the Conquest of Light and Space, edited by Michiel C.C. Kersten, and Danielle H.A.C. Lokin, 129-210. Zwolle; Waanders, 1996.
KERSTEN, Michiel C.C., and Danielle H.A.C. Lokin, eds. Delft Masters, Vermeer’s Contemporaries: lllusionism through the Conquest of Light and Space. Zwolle: Waanders, 1996.
KIRCHER, Athanasius. Ars Magna Lucis et Umbra. Romae: Sumptibus Hermanni Scheus, 1646.
KING, Taryn. "Through the Camera Obscura: exploring the voyeuristic gaze through Grahamstown's architecture." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2015.
LIEDTKE, Walter. Vermeer: The Complete Works. London: Abrams, 2008.
LIEDTKE, Walter. "Delft Painting ‘in Perspective’: Carel Fabritius, Leonart Bramer, and the Architectural and Townscape Painters from about 1650 Onward." In Vermeer and the Delft School, edited by Walter Liedtke, Michiel C. Plomp, and Axel Rüger, 98-129. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001.
LIEDTKE, Walter. "Art & Optics Web Exhibit: Walter Liedtke." Art & Optics, Accessed 12 August, 2021.
LOKIN, Danielle H.A.C. "Delft Church interiors 1650-1675." In Delft Masters, Vermeer’s Contemporaries: Illusionism through the Conquest of Light and Space, edited by Michiel C.C. Kersten, and Danielle H.A.C. Lokin, 43-83. Zwolle; Waanders, 1996.
NINDBERG, D. C. "The Theory of Pinhole Images from Antiquity to the Thirteenth Century." Archive for History of the Exact Sciences 5 (1968-9): 154-76.
MAARSEVEEN, M. P. van. Vermeer of Delft: His Life and Times. Delft: Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof; Amersfoort: Bekking Publishers, 1996.
MENDE, Kazuko. "Light and Shadow in Painting–Concerning the Expression of Shadows in Western Painting." Journal for Geometry and Graphics 5, no. 1 (2001): 53-59.
MILLS, A. A., and M. L. Jones. "Three lenses by Constantijn Huygens in the possession of the Royal Society of London." Annals of Science 46 (1989): 173–182.
MILLS, A. A. "Vermeer and the camera obscura: some practical considerations." Leonardo, vol. 31, no. 3 (1998): 213–218.
LINDBERG, D. C. "The theory of pinhole images from antiquity to the thirteenth century." Archive for History of Exact Sciences, vol. 5 (1968): 154–176.
NAUDE, Irene. "The Ontology of Photography Visually Analysed through the Camera Obscura." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2017.
OWNEEN, Ursula. "Camera obscura." Index on Censorship 28, no. 6 (November 1999): 5–7.
PARK, D. The Fire Within the Eye: A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
PENNELL, Joseph. "Photography as a hindrance and a help to art." British Journal of Photography, no. 1618, vol. XXXVIII (1891): 294–296.
PIRENNE, M.H. Optics, Painting & Photography. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
POTONNIEE, G. Histoire de la Decouverte de la Photographie. Paris, 1925. Translated by E. Epstean as The History of the Discovery of Photography. New York: Tennant and Ward, 1936.
RAUER, Constantin. "Kant’s Philosophy of Projection: The Camera Obscura of the Inaugural Dissertation." In Rethinking German Idealism, 21–50. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016.
RUESTOW, E. G. The Microscope in the Dutch Republic: The Shaping of Discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
SATO, N. "Camera Obscura's Role in Johannes Vermeer's Painting Space." Empirical Studies of the Arts (January 1, 2010).
SCHWARTS, Heinrick. "Vermeer and the Camera Obscura." Pantheon 24, 1966.
SCHIERBEEK, A. Measuring the Invisible World: The Life and Works of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek FRS. London: Abelard-Schumann, 1959.
SMITH, A. Mark. "What is the History of Medieval Optics Really About?" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 147, no. 2 (2004): 180-186.
SMITH, A. Mark. From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2015.
SPOORS, Jacob. Oratie van de nieuwe wonderen des wereldts, de nuttigheyd, de waerdigheyd, der wis- ende meet-konsten. Delf: By Jan Pietersz. Waelpot, woonende aen’t Merc-veld, by ’t Stad-huys, inde Druckerye, 1638
STEADMAN, Phillip. Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
STOREY, Jacqueline Anne. "The camera obscura and the pursuit of the uncanny." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2005.
STORK, David G. "Optics and Realism in Renaissance Art." Scientific American (2004): 76-83.
SUMMERS, David. Vision, Reflection, and Desire in Western Painting. Chapel Hill: The University of Northern Carolina Press, 2007.
VERSTEGEN, Ian. "Perspective, Space, and Camera Obscura in the Renaissance." In The Palgrave Handbook of Image Studies, 75–91. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021.
WADE, N.J. A Natural History of Vision. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1998.
WALD, Robert. "The Art of Painting. Observations on Approach and Technique." in Vermeer die Malkunst: Spruchensicherung an einem meisterwerk, edited by Sabine Haag, Elke Oberthaler, and Sabine Pènot, 312-321. Salzburg: Residenz Verlag, 2010.
WADUM, Jørgen. "Vermeer in Perspective." In Johannes Vermeer, edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Ben Broos. New Haven and New York: Yale University Press, 1995. 67–79.
WATERHOUSE, J. "Notes on the early history of the camera obscura." The Photographic Journal, vol. XXXV (May, 1901): 270–290.
WEBER, Gregor. Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection. Rotterdam: nai010 publishers, 2023.
WELU, J. A. "Vermeer: His Cartographic Sources." Art Bulletin 57 (1975): 529-547.
WESTEIJN, Thijs. "'This Art Embraces All Visible Things in its Domain': Samuel van Hoogstraten and the Trattato della Pittura." In Re-Reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting Across Europe, 1550-1900, edited by Claire Farago, 415- 439. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2009.
WHEELOCK, Arthur K. Jr. Perspective, Optics and Delft Artists Around 1650. Reprint of dissertation submitted to Harvard University, 1973. New York: Garland, 1977.
ZAHN, Johann. Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus sive Telescopium. Norimbergæ: Sumptibus Johannis Christophori Lochneri Bibliopolæ, typis Johannis Ernesti Adelbulneri, 1702.
ZUIDERVAART, Huib J., and Marlise Rijks. " ‘Most rare workmen’: optical practitioners in early seventeenth-century Delft." The British Journal for the History of Science (2014): 1-33

Websites

STEADMAN, Philip. "Vermeer and the Camera Obscura." Accessed [Date]. (A very informative website dealing with the principal theories of Philip Steadman.)
"The Camera Obcura," Wikipedia (The single, most exhaustive website about the camera obcura.)
"Inside the Camera Obscura—Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image," Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, reprint 333, 2007.
"The Magic Mirror of Life: A Search for Camera Obscura Room" (An excellent web site that deals with both camera obscura room, which Vermeer may have been familiar with, and the mobile type that Vermeer most probably used.)
"Art and Optics" (A conference in New York involving David Hockney's recent book.)
"How to Transform a Room into a Camera Obscura," Howcast.com. http://www.howcast.com/videos/387145-How-to-Transform-a-Room-into-a-Camera-Obscura
"The Sky in a Room" (An interesting site which explains how you might turn a room of your house into a camera obscura.)
O'NEILL, Tom. "Rooms With a View" (Photographer Abelardo Morell's camera obscura turns darkened rooms into magical landscapes. Photograph by Abelardo Morell).