Secret Knowledge

excerpt from the trip worksheet: National Gallery- This is probably England’s most famous gallery and entry is free. The collection includes Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and paintings by famous artists including Vermeer, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jan Van Eyke. Photographers often take inspiration from Art. Photography as we know it evolved from a science to an art form because of artists, and this was the foundation for the visual culture that we live in today. The paintings that we would particularly like you to look at are Hans Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’ (remember the one with the anamorphic skull?) in room 4, and ‘The Supper at Emmaus’ by Caravaggio in room 32. In David Hockney’s (a notable painter and photographer) ‘Secret Knowledge’ where he attempted to prove the use of photography (the camera obscura) in old master paintings, he used this painting as an example. The man in the far right of the painting has a larger hand in the background than the one on the foreground- evidence that the camera obscura may have been moved. Many other paintings in the collection may have utilised camera obscuras- ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’ by Jan Van Eyck in room 56 shows a level of detail that has also been attributed to the artist tracing a camera obscura projection.