Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Figure 3. Perspective drawing of Vermeer'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 far 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 for 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 Meetkonst
(the art of measurement) should consult the Landmeeter (the cartographer)
in order to make use of his expertise (36) . This, he writes, would lead
to a better understanding of perspective or Doorsicht-kunde. Desargues further
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 found in the paint in paintings throughout his
whole oeuvre (38).
Conclusion
The extraordinary and curious perspectives, so much admired by van Berckhout
in 1669, therefore appear to have been carefully constructed. This leaves
the impression that Vermeer should be regarded first and foremost as a practical
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 Vermeer 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 composition,
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 seventeenthcentury
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 overwhelming
and goes well beyond the scope of this article; the reader is referred to the
fo rthcoming exhibition catalogue on Johannes Vermeer (Washington, 1995; The
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice