Vermeer's Secret
Painting with Light
Q: How did Vermeer create realistic photographic-like images before the camera was even invented?
A: Mirrors
This question has been discussed again and again. There seems to be a consensus that he used a little mirror at a 45-degree angle called a comparator mirror. The following videos talk about this technique.
This is quite an unexpected rabbit hole that even led the famous Vegas magicians Penn and Teller to produce a video (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim%27s_Vermeer) about this painting technique.
There is a new camera on kickstarter, which does the same thing. See: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/06/neolucida-plus
Bonus: 12 Things You Didn't Know About Vermeer
Pairs nicely with:
More links:
https://www.sonyclassics.com/timsvermeer/
https://www.easy-oil-painting-techniques.org/how-to-use-a-comparator-mirror.html
https://joshgans.medium.com/10-reasons-to-doubt-tims-vermeer-c183bb3ce7a2
https://www.artble.com/artists/johannes_vermeer
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Very cool post, Paul! This won't be the most intellectually stimulating of the comments here (I'm guessing), but I dug all the pictures, and I never heard of Vermeer (which heretofore I thought was merely "a thin decorative covering of fine wood applied to a coarser wood or other material"). But, I really enjoyed (finally!) hearing Teller speak! I'll learn up on Vermeer shortly!