纪录片《蒂姆的维梅尔》

    This documentary* tries to find out the interesting connection between art and technology.

    It shows how a skillful amateur* was able to re-create a great 17th century painting.

    With his friend Teller behind the camera, commentator* Penn Jillette takes the viewer by the hand as the team’s computer graphics inventor friend Tim Jenison shows his huge efforts to get everything right and, in the process, proves that Dutch master Johannes Vermeer painted with the help of a camera obscura*.

    Jenison’s task, which took him 1,825 days, was to faithfully* reproduce* one of Vermeer’s great paintings, “The Music Lesson,” which depicts* a young woman and her teacher at a harpsichord* and is typical of the artist in its use of side window light and a simple setting.

    Not an artist himself, Jenison wanted to test the theory discussed in two books published in 2001, artist David Hockney’s “Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters” and professor Philip Steadman’s “Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering* the Truth Behind the Masterpieces.”

    The theory, first raised by American photographer Joseph Pennell in 1891, is that Vermeer was able to achieve his exceptional* effects not just by watching his subjects with his eyes but through the use of “projected images,” produced by mirrors and lenses, that he could trace*.

    People believe that Vermeer, who died in 1675, had camera obscura equipment. But no one knows whether he used it or not. Vermeer’s work, especially the luminosity* and richness of his colors, makes it appear that he was “painting with light.” For more than three centuries, scholars wonder about his “secret,” something Jenison deals with in an analytical* way.

    The remarkable result Jenison gets doesn’t undercut* Vermeer’s greatness at all, but perhaps partly solves the mystery. “How did he do it?” suddenly has an answer that makes Vermeer and, other artists too, less godlike and more understandable.

    (SD-Agencies)