Monday, December 2, 2013

Vermeer's Game

On my drive home from work today, I heard a fascinating interview with the director of a new documentary about some strange methods possibly used by 17th century artist Johannes Vermeer to create his masterpieces.  The idea is that he may have built some complex combinations of mirrors and lenses to project images onto (or near to) his canvases to aid in the construction of his famously photo-realistic renderings of life.


The radio interview is here, and additional information about the documentary is here.  The NPR reporter was almost aghast at the insinuation that Vermeer may have "cheated" somehow using these techniques.  The director retorted wonderfully:
"Art is not sports. Art is an activity in which one human heart communicates to the other human heart. If Vermeer used this method, which Tim believes pretty strongly he may have used, that makes Vermeer better, not worse. What this means is that Vermeer was not only someone with wonderful and beautiful ideas, and someone capable of miraculous compositions, but that he was willing to put in the incredibly intense work to translate those ideas to paint on canvas. And it's very possible that Vermeer himself may have invented this device."
One thing I forgot to mention:  the director is the guy on the right...


...and it was rather surreal to hear the voice of the normally silent partner of the two talk about this project.  It is also quite spot-on for these particular stage magicians (who often delight in the deconstruction of their craft) to be interested in these techniques.  Is it too much of a cliche to say it?  I'll say it.  "It's all done with mirrors," after all.  :-)

I can't help but think about possible links between Vermeer's mirrors and lenses and some other famous optical marvels of that time period.  It was probably no coincidence that the 1600s also saw the development of the magic lantern -- an early version of the slide projector -- which was used not only in stage shows, but also in spooky initiation rituals and spiritualist seances.  Earlier this year I talked about the fictional (?) and magical (?) "looking glasses of divers virtues" described in the anonymous Rosicrucian manifestos of the early 1600s.

And, of course, there's the Glass Bead Game itself.  Although the game itself is supposed to be a highly abstract symbolic presentation of complementary and contrasting ideas, Herman Hesse described its origins as a set of colored glass beads strung on an abacus-like set of parallel wires...
"The wires corresponded to the lines of the musical staff, the beads to the time-values of the notes, and so on. In this way he [the creator of the game, Bastian Perrot] could represent with beads musical quotations or invented themes, could alter, transpose, and develop them, change them and set them in counterpoint to one another."
I've always loved the subtle ways that the concepts of reflection, refraction, and the focusing of light (through those colored beads) could be used as metaphors for the infinite alchemy of ideas made possible by something like the Glass Bead Game.  Well now, I've just got to create the darn thing...

10 comments:

  1. I find the idea of Vermeer using opaque projection absolutely delightful. Much was known about optics in his time and he certainly conducted light onto his canvasses and into our lives.

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    1. His work continues to exert a glamour. Even the work of a WWII-era forger of Vermeers has become quite valuable!

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    2. It's interesting the role that art--and forgeries--played during WWII.

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    3. It continues to resonate today, too. One still sees news stories about the fates of paintings that were stolen, hidden, repatriated, and so on during the war.

      (If anyone reading this is a fan of the British comedy "Allo Allo," you'll no doubt be reminded of a provocative painting of the Fallen Madonna that occupied the attentions of a little town in occupied France!)

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  2. I find this fascinating, wow, I want to see this documentary! How did we not figure this out sooner? I love it - there's always more to learn and to be known.

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    1. I forgot to mention that Penn narrates the documentary. It's been shown at film festivals, and should be released more widely early next year. (Art-house theaters are fine, but hopefully there will be DVD, Netflix, and so on...) :-)

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  3. Dear Cygnus,
    that is an interesting revelation about the way Vermeer might have worked. I also do not see why this should diminish his work, and love the quote of the art director. Magic lanterns are - magic. Sometimes on a flea-market one can find here some of the old glass-slides for them, and in Munich they once had a very interesting exhibition about them.

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    1. I don't know if I've ever seen a magic lantern in person. A couple of years ago, I read an awesome (if somewhat dry and scholarly) book about the history of stage magic during this period. So many tricks that were written about in the 1600s and 1700s still haven't been figured out!

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  4. There was some discussion of this in the book "Girl with a Pearl Earring." I can't remember if there was any mention of it in the film.

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    1. I've been meaning to see the movie, but still haven't. Scarlett J was of course a dead ringer. Colin Firth as the tortured, lovelorn artiste -- way to think out of the box, guys...

      I also realized that the "pearl earring selfie" parody I posted above is probably a few years old... that thing she's holding ain't no smartphone! :-)

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