Renaissance painters might have used lenses

#21

I think the comparisson between Ingres’ beautiful portrait drawings and Hockney’s attempts using optical aids speak for itself… (see attachments)

Also, when asked why Hockney only demonstrated drawing and not a completed painting, he replied that he had tried painting with his camera obscura, but had abandoned the effort “within ten minutes” because it was far too impractical. So what is he saying here? The masters needed optical devices but it is far too difficult for himself to create something worthwhile with it?

#22

And they compare very poorly indeed…

#23

of course they did, same way some contemporary “photo-real” digital artist do today, tracing photografs and overpainting… I don’t know who they try to cheat anyway.
By the way, have you ever read some of those guys bios? damn, most of them looks more like pirates than artists.

#24

You could totally say the same right now… just modern pirates. :stuck_out_tongue:

#25

joajoajaoajoajoa… good point :stuck_out_tongue:

#26

I think many current masters can also draw pretty accurately without reference, Check out Dylan cole doing landscapes out of thin air and Glenn Vilppu giving a demonstration, And Stahlberg making beautiful paintovers over drawings/paintings /renders which never had any magic in them,!I dont find it surprising that the old masters did work a lot from imagination apart from life studies for their subjects, hell ,I draw pretty darn accurate stuff from imagination all the time!I do believe there must have been some ppl who might have used faster methods of drawing in those days but ppl like leonardo and michelangelo etc no way one look at their drawings or work and u know.

#27

i agree with Hockney 100%…

also, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods were/are on steroids

Beethovens work was ALL ghost written

classical animation is dead

and Paris Hilton can sing

#28

without proof its just endless speculation. Does it really matter that much?

#29

oh yeah, I feel so much superior thinking this way…
I have a PC and Leonardo just his stupid lenses… I’m so cool…
what are we talking about here?..
c’mon

#30

even if they did…the painting is phenominal! its amazing what artists did back in the day. the best artists in the world came about around the same era. nothing in modern day has happened like that. nothing new and amazing has happened. dont get me wrong. there are many great artists…but we have not made a leap like they did back then. they are the foundation of our arts today. when will a new breed of genius come about?? no one in my eyes will ever be better than the masters. i dont understand why no one will be…but i just dont see it. they were more than just artists. they were scientists and much more. so i give them every bit of admiration.

#31

Why all the fuss about this stuff? A successful painting is far more than just having accurate shapes–there are creative choices in colors, brushwork, selective detail, edge quality, textures, values, including fabrication of subjects that don’t exist in real life (myths, legends, religious images…etc). Anyone who can only trace the outlines but don’t possess all the other skills necessary would never be able to produce a worthwhile painting anyway. Saying that having used lenses back then somehow detracts from the genius of the old masters is probably a bit dramatic.

#32

I think hokney rocks, as it was him against the art market, Looking at those art thinking they were just tracing makes it a lot less genial sometimes even boring. Also now a days there are people that think that imitating a fotocopy aperatus with your bare hands and a pencil is the summit of creativity. An other story I heard was that all the stories of shakespeare werent written by a single man but by a group of people pretending to be one man, my first reaction was this man must have misinterpreteted the word shakespeare company, lol
My tip to all the mediacore artist here is group together and pretend youre one person.

#33

man, and i was just beginning to wonder why somebody would go and discredit some of the greatest artists ever lived, an artist nontheless… then i saw his work. it all makes sense now.

#34

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