How some landscape painters blurred the view to paint, while others have depicted motion blur, depth of field effects, or an edge hierarchy. Links to each article in the series.
Vermeer
An American fan of Vermeer who trained under Gérôme in Paris thought he’d discovered Vermeer’s optical secrets, and revived his defocussed style.
For a decade from about 1658, his indoor figurative paintings show soft and blurred edges. Establishing the optical basis for this is key to understanding.
The human visual system seldom sees blur, and the great majority of paintings don’t show it either. This series explores the use of blur in paintings.
Brunelleschi’s geometry, Masaccio’s technique and vision, Alberti’s initial and popular account, followed by a comprehensive account by Piero della Francesca.
Evoking music from a painting is a serious challenge, yet many artists have tried it. See if any of these work for you. From Lavinia Fontana to Degas.
Apelles, Vermeer, Goya, Hogarth, Courbet, Pissarro, de Haan, and Gustav Klimt: their paintings now lost forever.
A trip round the painter’s palette, with outstanding examples of well-known colours in use. Starts with yellow, then to red and finally to blue.
There were few good reasons to blur what should be sharp edges in paintings. Aerial perspective and Vermeer’s unusual optical effects explored in paintings.
An offshoot of still life paintings of food, it was never very popular, and most of these are decidedly odd. From Jan Brueghel the elder to
The Eclectic Light Company 