Prof. Richard Hammack

Did Caravaggio use a camera?

Abstract. Renaissance artists developed the mathematical theory of perspective as a means of accurately depicting the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.  They created works of unprecedented realism through this mathematical technique.

Or did they? The British artist David Hockney has advanced a controversial theory: Many Renaissance artists created paintings not with perspective, but through optical projection. This talk will explain Hockney's ideas and examine some of the visual evidence that supports them.