The “Camera Obscura”

 

The “Camera Obscura” which literary means “dark room” has been known since the time of Ibn al Haithem, an Arab scholar. It is a 19th century optical device and was usually used by artists such as Johannes Vermeer. This devise was used to make quick sketches in the field by the use of a pinhole in a window blind that forms an inverted image of an scene on an opposite wall of a dark room This process was first described In 1568 by the Venetian Daniel Barbaro. He suggested that “the image would be improved by covering it with a disk having a small hole in the centre, a very early reference to stopping down a lens to increase the depth of focus”. In 1685, Johann Zahn invented the box form of Camera Obscura. This was used for sketching. The tracing paper of the “Camera Obscura” was placed on the missing glass inside the folding hood and the image was reflected onto the paper by a 45° mirror placed inside the box.

 “This example is in the historical apparatus collection at Transylvania University, and is of the form used by William Henry Fox Talbot for his experiments with photography in the 1830s.”

FROM: http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Optics/Camera_Obscura/Camera_Obscura.html

Other Guitar Players

When searching the web about Vermeer´s “The Guitar PLayer” I realized how many paintings of a guitar player there are and I found them interesting to show them here. Take a look!

 ”The Guitar Player” By: Jacob van Schuppen

“The Old Guitar Player” By: Pablo Picasso (1903)

“The Guitar Player” By:

“Guitar PLayer” By: Minko Oleg (1996)

“The Guitar PLayer Cadaques” By: Pablo Picasso (1910)

“The Guitar Player-New Orleans” By: Val Bradley (2001)

“The Guitar Player” By: Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1755)

Vermeer´s signatures. Take a look!

Directly from: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/signitures.html

DIANA AND HER COMPANIONS
c.1653-1656
38 1/4 x 41 3/8 in. (98.5 x 105 cm.)
The Mauritshuis, The Hague

CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA
c. 1654-1656
63 x 53 7/8 in. (160 x 142 cm.)
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

THE PROCURESS
1656
56 1/2 x 51 1/8 in. (143 x 130 cm.)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

A MAID ASLEEP
c. 1656-57
34 1/2 x 30 1/8 in. (87.6 x 76.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A GIRL READING A LETTER BY AN OPEN WINDOW
c. 1657-1659
32 1/4 x 25 3/8 in. (83 x 64.5 cm.)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

VIEW OF DELFT
c.1660-1661
38 1/4 x 46 1/4 in. (98.5 x 117.5 cm.
The Mauritshuis, The Hague

THE LITTLE STREET
c. 1657-1661
21 1/16 x 17 1/8 in. (53.5 c 43.5 cm.)
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

THE GLASS OF WINE
c. 1658-1661
25 1/8 x 30 1/4 in. (65 x 77 cm.)
Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

THE GIRL WITH A GLASS OF WINE
c.1659-1660
30 3/4 x 26 1/8 in. (78 x 67 cm.
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick

WOMAN WITH A PEARL NECKLACE
c.1662-1665
oil on canvas
21 1/8 x 17 1/4 in. (55 x 45 cm.)
Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
c.1665_1667
oil on canvas
18 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (46.5 x 40 cm.)
Mauritshuis, The Hague

THE ASTRONOMER
1668
oil on canvas
19 3/8 x 17 3/4 in. (50 x 45 cm.
The Louvre, Paris

The woman in “The Guitar PLayer”

In http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/guitar_player.html# we can find a lot of information about Vermeer and his paintings, inspiration, techniques… Concretely about “The Guitar Player” I have found the following:

“John M. Montia, expert of Vermeer´s life and extended family, assumed that the yellow-jacketed guirl has the characteristic jaw formation of the Wrightsman portrait”. He also assumed that the girl in Vermeer´s eldest daughter, Maria, considering that the date in the picture (1671-1672) is right. This could be approximately when the girl was 17 or 16 years old. it is thought that it could also be a representation of Elisabeth, who was born in 1657, but it is less probable because she was under 15 years old when the picture was painted.

Vermeer “recalls the dangling curls of the young girl´s hair in the hanging braches of the idyllic landscape directly behind her head”. It is belived that his was a result of the convention of that time. A convention which considered the lady as a “masterpiece of nature to be admired, posessed and displayed”. This was a time in which women were likely to appear in poem, songs, paintings…

A First Side View

When, for the first time, we face a painting like this (The Guitar Player) we might not notice anything at first. What we see at first side is just an image of a girl who is just playing a guitar. Althought we do not see anyone else in the painting, it seems that she is looking at somebody. Her eyes seem to be focusing on something or somebody. Her fingers´ position suggest that she is procuding sounds. She seems to be playing for somebody who can be hearing and does not appear in the painting.

The girl playing the guitar expresses delicacy and softness. Behind her there is anothing painting (which is very common in Vermeer´s paintings). This is a painting of a landscape. Finally, on the right of the girl there is a table with two old books on the top of it and also a kind of rag.