Caravaggio used photographic techniques: researcher

[Adsos Letter]

Source: AFP/YahooNews
by Emmanuelle Andreani

FLORENCE, Italy (AFP) – Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio used revolutionary optical instruments to "photograph" his models more than 200 years before the invention of the camera, according to a researcher in Florence.

The 16th-century artist celebrated for his dramatic chiaroscuro (light and shadow) paintings mastered "a whole set of techniques that are the basis of photography", Roberta Lapucci told AFP.

Caravaggio worked in a "darkroom" and illuminated his models through a hole in the ceiling, said Lapucci, who teaches at the prestigious Studio Art Centers International in the Tuscan capital.

The image was then projected on a canvas using a lens and a mirror, she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090310/sc_afp/entertainmentitalyartphotography_20090310080019;_ylt=AsDiBC4rrQ7yEb_dm37nYQHPOrgF

[elleng]

1. Like this

[tuvor]

3. Thanks for providing a great example, elleng.

This is amazing stuff.

[elleng]

4. Glad you like it.

There are many more.

[tuvor]

2. Amazing. K/R

[REP]

5. He also painted directly on the canvas (no drawings underneath)

I've seen this one in person; you can see where he drew the palette knife across the canvas when deciding the angle of the leg.