Vermeer works were inspired by a pinhole camera, new book says
Dutch master Johannes Vermeer’s photo-like paintings were likely inspired by a 17th-century pinhole camera that was first introduced to him by Jesuit priests, a new biography said on Friday.
The book also reveals for the first time the extent of the influence of the Catholic church on Vermeer (1632-1675), who was born Protestant but later converted, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum said.
The museum will in February stage the biggest-ever exhibition by the Dutch Golden Age painter, whose works such as Girl with a Pearl Earring are world famous but about whose life little is known.
His home in Delft was next to a Jesuit mission with a hidden church where he “quite possibly first came into contact with the Jesuits in connection with the camera obscura”, says the biography by Gregor Weber, the Rijksmuseum’s fine arts department head.
Vermeer’s ‘The Lacemaker’. Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP
Used in various forms for thousands of years, the “camera obscura” involves a darkened room or box into which the outside image is projected through a small hole or lens.
“Lighting effects which are particular to the camera can also be found in Vermeer’s paintings, leaving little room for doubt that the...