Is the use by old masters of camera obscura and optics in general a taboo topic in Art History, or was David Hockney's thesis wrong?
score:9
Hockney's claims have drawn at least some serious scholarly attention and experimentation.
The Art & Optics website hosted by Brandeis University reviews the theory, experiments, and arguments for and against the use of optics by old masters -- noting that evidence that some painters may have used some devices in some paintings doesn't mean they used them in other paintings.
One note is that the mechanical drawing underlying a painting is only one aspect of the painting's production and impact, neglecting choice of subject matter, composition, use of materials, application of stroke and color, glazing, and more. The documentary Tim's Vermeer drew mockery for lauding Tim Jenison's dab-by-dab work replicating the surface of Vermeer's The Music Lesson as anything comparable to the process of producing the original work.
The evolution of Western art that you note involves far more than the technical precision of using optics for drawing, and of course there have been many phases of Western art that valued less-precise, even impressionistic interpretations of scenery, still lives, and society.
Upvote:-4
Have you actually looked at any paintings from before the renaissance? There's plenty that look accurate. Besides, David Hockney, whilst he was at art school made a point of not going to art history lessons, so I'd take his ideas here with a large dose of salt.
Have art historians given Hockneys ideas the attention it deserves?
Why should they? He disrespected them all the way through art college!
Upvote:3
The Hockney-Falco thesis is NOT a taboo subject in art history.
This is not going to be regarded as a good answer because I can't cite any written sources, I've asked former art students who were aware of the theory and had been taught it at college. Also, there has been plenty of discussion of the idea over the last twenty years. When it was introduced it was very controversial and there was much discussion and research.
Over time, its importance has faded; the good parts have been retained, the bad are ignored. I'm happy to discuss the good and the bad elsewhere, this is an attempt to provide a direct answer to the question
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