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Tracing the history of art

Nature volume 438, page 916 (2005)Cite this article

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Optics, Instruments and Painting, 1420–1720: Reflections on the Hockney–Falco Thesis [Early Science and Medicine Vol. 10 no. 2]

Edited by:
  • Sven Dupré
Brill Academic: 2005. 214 pp. $74 1383-7427

Readers of Nature were among the first to learn of an intriguing theory proposed by artist David Hockney. He suggested that as early as 1420 some leading European artists used concave mirrors to project optical images on to their canvases, and traced them during the execution of their paintings (see Nature 400, 524 (1999)10.1038/22937; Nature 412, 860 (2001)10.1038/35091126; Nature 417, 794 (2002)10.1038/417794a ). The claim is sometimes called the Hockney–Falco thesis to acknowledge the technical efforts of physicist Charles Falco. Hockney thinks the procedure was a key source of the naturalism, or ‘optical look’, arising in early Renaissance painting.

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  1. chief scientist at Ricoh Innovations, Menlo Park, 94028, California, USA

    David G. Stork

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  1. David G. Stork
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Stork, D. Tracing the history of art. Nature 438, 916 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/438916b

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