Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

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Figure 3. Perspective drawing of Ve rmeer's A Lady Seated at the Virginals, 1673-1675.

likely because it would imply doing unnecessary calculations, and indeed no

trace of marks on the edges of his paintings has so fa r surfaced.

If there were a simple method of creating perfect central-point perspective,

painters would surely have used it. By placing the canvas against a board (most

of his paintings are small) or a wall, between two nails on either side of the

painting, the painter would be able to use strings fo r the diagonals as well.

Indications of the use of such a simple method may be deduced from books

on perspective that might have been known to Vermeer. Desargues writes in

his introduction that a painter who wants to know more about the Meet­

konst (the art of measurement) should consult the Landmeeter (the cartogra­

pher) in order to make use of his expertise (36). This, he writes, would lead

to a better understanding of perspective or Doorsicht-kunde. Desargues fu rther

suggests that the painter should look around him in other guilds to take

advantage of the knowledge of carpenters, bricklayers, and cabinetmakers.

Furthermore, it appears that constructors of perspective in the seventeenth

century were using drawing tables almost as sophisticated as the ones we use

today. With strings attached to the upper corners of the drawing table, the

draftsman could create any orthogonals he wanted on his paper. The horizon

could be plotted using a sliding ruler at a fixed 90° angle to the horizontal

bottom edge of the table. A horizon would be chosen at the desired level on

this ruler, and by sliding the ruler across the paper, a line could be drawn

(37).

Vermeer also worked in this way, as is proven by the presence of the clearly

distinguishable needle point fo und in the paint in paintings throughout his

whole oeuvre (38).

Conclusion

The extraordinary and curious perspectives, so much admired by van Berck­

hout in 1669, therefore appear to have been carefully constructed. This leaves

the impression that Vermeer should be regarded first and fo remost as a prac­

tical and skilled master in creating space just the way he wanted it. This

approach departs from the previous conception of the artist as reproducing

the scenes he saw in front of him, either by careful copying using drawing

frames or a camera obscura. The author believes that Ve rmeer was completely

aware of the spatial illusion he wanted to create, which he produced by

combining his skill in constructing space with his artistic talent fo r compo­

sition, color, technique, and iconography (39). He thereby created his images

in such a way that viewers are deceived into believing that the scenes were

real. This was the highest level of artistic ambition to which a seventeenth­

century painter could aspire, a level Vermeer surely attained.

Acknowledgments

Most sincere thanks are due to the institutes that have been more than generous in

supplying information about their Vermeer paintings and letting the author examine

most of them in the conservation studios. The amount of information is overwhelm­

ing and goes well beyond the scope of this article; the reader is ref erred to the

forthcoming exhibition catalogue on Johannes Vermeer (Washington, 1995; The

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice