Big Controversy: Should Artists Use This Tool? [feedly]

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Big Controversy: Should Artists Use This Tool?
// Artist Daily

David Hockney asserted that Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait was created with optical tools.

The camera lucida is something I've known about for years, but I didn't know there was such controversy surrounding it--or that people felt so passionately about its historical use or lack thereof. Latin for "light room," the camera lucida is a device used to help artists draw and render by superimposing an image of an object onto a drawing surface so that you can see the subject and drawing surface at the same time. It can help an artist sketch complicated passages of a drawing or even make a contour line drawing of objects.

And while the tool is not particularly well known or widely used now, documents going back to the 1600s describe the existence of a similar tool. Even commercial artists from the 1950s through the 1980s used a variation on the camera lucida because it provided a quick and accurate way of drawing.

But here's where the real fight began. Several years ago, artist David Hockney asserted that many of the masters of Western art--Ingres, Jan Van Eyck, Caravaggio--used the camera lucida and other optical aids to help create their art, insinuating that the skillful realism so highly prized in art history was a sham. Gasp!

Reactions were extreme. On one hand: boo, hiss, and a lot of umbrage about the idea that someone would claim that the Old Masters cheated their way to the art that we revere them for. On the other hand, artists were intrigued by the camera lucida. They wanted to know how to get their hands on one; many started experimenting with it.

I still love the work of the Old Masters and the idea of them using tools to render doesn't really doesn't change the way I feel about it, though many scientists and historians have refuted Hockney's claims. More importantly I don't think that the paintings and drawings that belong in the Hall of Fame of Western civilization are so easily explained. There is a lot more too them than just good rendering.

	The camera lucida's existence goes back to the 1600s. It was patented in the 1800s, and was used by commercial illustrators as recently as the 1980s. Some artists still use it today.

But the point is that the camera lucida is a tool, and every tool has its place. Many artists don't use the camera lucida. I've never used one, but there are apparently many artists who believe there are merits to its application when it comes to drawing complicated perspectives and spatial relationships. I'm mostly intrigued by all the reactions the controversy over the camera lucida received, but it is interesting to know how it works and what it can do. The more I know, the better I feel I understand art and my place in it--no matter if I decide to use (or not use) that new knowledge or those tools in my work.

If you feel the same way--that knowledge is power!--our premiere issue of Artists & Makers magazine will be as informative for you as it was for me when it comes to making a living with your art. No matter what you are searching for--how to make social media work for you or how to finance your business--Artists & Makers will give you such clarity when it comes to the formal aspects of your art business. Enjoy!

P.S. What your thoughts are on the camera lucida and the idea that the Old Masters could have used it? Have you used it? Would you? Leave a comment and let me know!

 

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