Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Based on intensive studies of various means used to create " church portraits,"
de Boer concluded in 1988 that optical devices were not generally used by
artists in the Netherlands around 1650 (25). Interestingly, he notes that the
reason for this would probably be the difficulty of combining the use of a
camera obscura (for tracing an image) with actually painting a painting.
Recently, Arasse made a general comparison of the position of the horizon
and the viewpoint in Vermeer paintings (26). He notes that the viewpoint
gradually lowered between 1656 and 1661. According to Arasse, Vermeer
tended to combine a low viewpoint with a high horizon. Arasse considers
the often very low viewpoint in relation to the depicted figures to be a special
effect that Vermeer deliberately wanted to create in order to draw the viewer
into the scenes. This statement shows that Arasse considers Vermeer's intention
to be the creation of an illusionistic spatial setting as an imaginative
process rather than the rendering of a known space, an opinion this author
shares.
Present research
In the following paragraphs, results from the author's latest research on this
aspect of Vermeer's painting technique are presented. Through a thorough
study of the actual paintings, mostly out of their frames and placed under a
stereomicroscope, certain surface phenomena in the paint layer have been
observed. Together with X-radiographs and other photoanalytical means such
as ultraviolet and infrared photography, a compilation of information has been
possible, leading to the conclusion that Vermeer did not paint "naar het leven"
(after life), as suggested by the majority of scholars mentioned above, but that
as a craftsman he created a spatial illusion with the masterly hand of an
outstanding artist.
In 1949 Hulten was the first to actually record a discernible vanishing point
in one of Vermeer's paintings. He observed that just below the left knob of
the map hanging on the rear wall in The Allegory of Painting there was a small
irregularity in the paint layer which coincided with the central vanishing
point of the composition (27).
Indeed, fo r Vermeer the central perspective was the main guideline for his
interiors. Current examinations reveal that the vanishing point can still be
fo und in most of his interior scenes (28). It can be seen (with the naked eye
or more easily with a stereomicroscope) that Vermeer must have attached a
pin at the vanishing point in the painting, resulting in the loss of minuscule
amounts of paint and ground. X-radiographs can be used to find the black
spot where the ground containing lead white is missing between the threads
of the canvas. Having inserted the pin at the vanishing point, Vermeer would
have used a string to reach any area of his canvas to create perfect orthogonals
for the perspective.
Vermeer's method is far from unique; among the architectural painters of his
time it was well known. Gererd Houckgeest (1600-1661) and Emanuel de
Witte (1617-1 692) practiced this method, which Pieter Saenredam (1597-
1665) had already brought to perfection (29, 30). Vermeer's slightly older
colleague Pieter de Hooch (1629-1683) also used a single vanishing point.
Similarly, in paintings by Gerard Dou (1613-1675), Gabriel Metsu (ca. 1629-
1667), and others, we again find irregularities in the paint where a pin was
placed at the vanishing point.
The method of using a chalk line to indicate lines is still used by painters
and other artists when planning illusionistic interiors (e.g., with marbling, a
specialty developed during the Baroque period) . That this kind of illusionistic
painting was known to Vermeer is clear from the virginals in the two London
paintings, both of which have been "marbled."
In order to transfer the line indicated by the string, chalk is applied to the
string. Holding the string taut from the pin inserted at the vanishing point,
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice