Optical Insights into Renaissance Art

David Hockney and Charles M. Falco

In this feature, world-renowned artist David Hockney and University of Arizona optical sciences professor Charles Falco explain how Hockney’s observation that certain Renaissance paintings seemed almost “photographic” in nature led them to launch an inquiry into the possibility of finding scientific evidence that some of the Old Masters relied on optical aids. Hockney’s visual observations received scientific validation when application of basic optics principles to a number of Renaissance paintings began generating remarkably consistent results.