November 9, 2009

Renaissance art optics theory to be examined in physics talk

A startling recent theory that Renaissance artists 500 years ago may have used secret optical projectors to enhance realism will be examined in a physics talk Thursday (Nov. 12).

David Stork, chief scientist at Ricoh Innovations and a professor of wide background, will speak at 4 p.m. in Fowler Hall, Stewart Center. His presentation is titled "Did Early Renaissance Masters 'Cheat' Using Optics? Computer Science, Physics, and Art History Address a Bold Theory."

Stork has degrees in physics and has done advanced study in art history. He holds 38 U.S. patents and has taught in five departments at Stanford University as well as at other colleges and universities.

He will speak about an international team's inquiry into the optical projection theory advanced in 2000 by artist David Hockney and scientist Charles Falco. That theory, which stunned the art world, claimed that some Renaissance artists, as early as 1430, secretly built optical projectors, projected portions of their tableaus onto their canvas/panel, traced the real images, and then applied paint.

The proponents believe this tracing procedure was responsible in large part for the rise in realism found in early Renaissance art. The look into the theory -- by an independent set of 11 scientists, eight historians of optics or art, and two curators -- has involved dramatic physical discoveries in artworks themselves, new computer vision methods based on forensic image analysis, computer graphics reconstructions of artists’ studios and lighting, the application of sophisticated optical ray-tracing software to simulate putative projectors, experimental re-enactments by professional artists, and more.

The conclusion of these experts is in fact unanimous and sheds light on both art and science.

The talk is a special installment of the ongoing Physics Department General Colloquium.