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Ten years on, the castle is being made a feature in the centre of Sheffield. The ruins are being excavated and a park will surround them. Up until recently a 1960s market had been built over the top of it.

To say that Vermeer didn’t have access to a complex lens is utterly absurd and shows a serious lack of knowledge in history. There’s absolutely no doubt that he used a camera obscura, this technology was available to him, why would he not use it? That certainly doesn’t make him a “cheater” or take away from his great talent as an artist. To cheat is to break the rules and there’s no rules in the arts.

Thank you for showing this video; I was born in Sheffield and loved English History at school but this was back in the late 1950's when students were eager to learn and would try to excel at the subjects they were interested in.

Vermeer used his skills more than any optical devices available at that time in history. I recently finished a film about Vermeers masterful use of edges as a major tool in his painting, Portrait of a Young Woman. czcams.com/video/grZpd_TG4Sk/video.html

lovely vid, ta.

Some people claim that the Town Hall was built by a previous civilisation mud flood theory. Its quite clear from here that St Pauls was surrounded by housing and this was removed to build the town hall. Anybody who disputes this fact is living in cloud cuckoo land. Fantastic video.

It's pronounced "bowcheff".

I do not believe a castle existed in Haymarket as it wouldn't make strategic sense to build a castle on one of the city's lowest places, Manor castle makes more sense being built on much higher ground!

Short life - great art.

I hope you still receive comments on your CZcams videos. Your narration is exceptional - not only because of your universally appealing accent and your tone of voice, but primarily because of your chosen inflections and the pace of your narrating. You also have written beautifully clear, succinct, and also often light-hearted script for every video I've watched since finding your Vermeer content this evening. I am subscribing to your channel in the off-chance that the future will bring more of these really delightful bits for this humble fan. Thank you for that which you have provided already.

Fascinating videos about Sheffield. Just a little omission. The organ does, indeed, survive at All Saints', Wingerworth. There is, however, a missing link. The new St Paul's, Arbourthorne which was a beneficiary of many things from St Paul's, Peace Gardens. When that church also closed, then Wingerworth benefitted from the organ. The organists were friends and the organ of too much historic and musical value to be lost. It remains one of the best organs in North Derbyshire.

Ah

Depending on what part of the City you come from...Beauchife Abbey is either pronounced... Bee Chiff... Or Bow Cheff.. Personally I prefer Bow Cheff. Though I'm not a snob.

That last photo isn’t Sheffield.

Wonderful and pretty accurate explanation. I came to believe as well that camera obscura cannot explain Vermeer´s work at all. Thanks for your video

Yes well. Forming opinions based on basic ignorance of everything involved. Time for a cold case review and release of the wronged prisoner. Why don't critics put a pinhole through the middle of their foreheads.

They all are in hell

Very interesting and moving. The music is much too loud and sometimes it is hard to understand the words of this very interesting text

A friend of mine and i composed a song for Johannes Vermeer czcams.com/video/a8JmXTWq0Ik/video.html

vanishing point has nothing to do with detail and the way he captured light. Size is irrelevant, dumb point, the CO could easily be moved to change the size. What’s more, they don’t trace, the colors won’t jive. Artists use math( geometry), vanishing points, and a variety of other techniques that are technology, which is nothing more than practical application of knowledge. why should it matter if he used some form of CO to assist? Everything they learn as apprentices is designed to do exactly that….assist in the development of the painting. People are too hung up on some ethereal notion of inimitable genius, God given talent, which is just proof that they have no idea how geniuses actually create. It’s painstakingly hard work and application of accumulated knowledge. The reality is that many people could use a technique like CO and make a picture indistinguishable from the masters to the untrained eye, but only the greats can instill that magical something that breaths life into it….making it great. That’s not about technique, it can’t be taught, so the net result is the same. Relax.

i dont know anything after that video... padding botto 50% and text after it

Bessemer?

Is the meaning of this conversation about a camera obscura to blame Johannes Vermeer ? He was a great painter for more then 350 years ago, a period that live wasn’t easy at all !

His name is Johannes..

This might be wrong asking 8 years after the video was uploaded, but do you have any sources?

You break it you buy it...Used to be common wisdom. czcams.com/video/2RW0BC3e6Gg/video.html

Music is so dam sad.

William de luv tot, the founder of Sheffield. 2nd descendant of William the conqueror.

Excellent. thank you.

Why is Vermeer's technique being censored? It was a not a Obscura, but a glass that was held up straight infront of a canvas along with the pinhole lines

Really enjoyed that.

World war II causes - atomic fission - operative goals: uranium ore, isotope separation, long range bomber, ICBM and fusion bomb.

I have seen his work many times. Truly conneccted with him in many ways. The genius! Who ever is interested - Leopold museum Vienna

Very interesting, thank you for sharing

Thank goodness someone has made a high production-value, reasoned presentation of the overwhelming evidence countering the intriguing hypothesis that Vermeer used a camera obscura. I'm SO glad the makers did not descend into the irrelevant interpretations of what such a use might "mean." ("Was it cheating?" and so on, which distracts the minds of those who can't let facts and evidence get in their way or are too lazy to actually consider the rigorous counter evidence, or think that the pronouncements of an artist should be more highly valued than clear and un-refuted counter evidence.). I assign this short video to my university class, "Computer vision and image analysis of art." Some viewers (and commenters, below) ask "What does it matter?" It matters a LOT... perhaps not so much to the causal art aficionado, but for those of us who care profoundly about how art is made, how artists solved problems (like perspective, color, ...) and the history of art and science, it matters a LOT. (It also alerts us to visual evidence, thus affecting our direct understanding and appreciation of certain art.). As far as I can see, there's not a single scholar who accepts the "next" attempt at "revealing" Vermeer's 'secret knowledge,' and it would be great if Red City did a similar refutation of that.

Man this is sad

Excellent, thank you! If only our teachers had given us a rest sometimes from Napoleon and Co. and their distant battles and taught us about our own local history as well!

Amazing, thank you. Why did my school not include local history in the curriculum?

i assume red city is a reference to the communist council it i a very short heritage tour now ,most of the heritage is flattened by the labour council to foist their particular brand of modernisation, all we got is a hodgepodge of arty building with no identity ,Sheffield castle ruins are a prime example they have been buried under concrete buildings twice now and very likely will again now, ,whereas other cities open up ancient ruins to attract tourists ,the likes the sheffield airport built with a too shorter runway now all gone, billions of pounds of taxpayers money wasted ,the moor in Sheffield has had more face lifts than a movie star, all failed , the list is endless ,they should do a video on that to record in history

i assume red city is a reference to the communist council it i a very short heritage tour now ,most of the heritage is flattened by the labour council to foist their particular brand of modernisation, all we got is a hodgepodge of arty building with no identity ,Sheffield castle ruins are a prime example they have been buried under concrete buildings twice now and very likely will again now, ,whereas other cities open up ancient ruins to attract tourists ,the likes the sheffield airport built with a too shorter runway now all gone, billions of pounds of taxpayers money wasted ,the moor in Sheffield has had more face lifts than a movie star, all failed , the list is endless ,they should do a video on that to record in history

The camera obscura ( dark room) was an optical device that created an image by focusing rays of light onto a screen or sheet of paper. it is described clearly in this video. It is still relevant today. Modern cameras are an advanced version of the camera obscura. The ancient Greeks knew this optical gadget.

A very informative, well presented lecture. Thank you.

2021

I did read there were plans to rebuild the castle gatehouse some years back. I cant find any recent information online. Does anyone know if this is still happening? Thanks.

Covid-19 make me watch this

Real sunlight has an infinite number of nuances, reflections and shade transitions, and the human eye cannot pick out and streamline all of them. Lenses and mirrors simplify this chaos of rays and reflections, organize it and create a specific flat image that can be analyzed and copied. That is why all the painters did not paint from nature at that time when the philosophers tried to determine the methods of scientific knowledge of truth, and the artists explored ways of reflecting reality in art. Some saw in lenses and mirrors a way of transferring reality to the canvas (the idea of an art as "a mirror of nature"), others, on the contrary, viewed these methods as "artistic fakes" (the Baroque idea of "an elusive reality"). Lorrain, who worked at the same time as Vermeer, is known for looking at landscapes through a special "Claude glass" while painting. Rembrandt, like all the other Dutchmen, painted "tronies" while looking at himself in the mirror. You can also find the mirror play in Velazquez' paintings. Many artists of the 16th and 17th centuries have also "revealed" their secret by painting distorted images taken from convex lenses (from Parmigianino to Elinga and Hoogstraten). One important feature of Vermeer's paintings makes it clear that he used lenses. It is the imitation of in-focus and out-of-focus effects. For example, in the "The Lacemaker" (Louvre), focus is visible on the embroidery, while the girl's face and figure is painted "out of focus" (maybe Leonardo's "sfumato" was also attempt to imitate this effect?). Of course, we don't know much about lenses from the Leeuwenhoek period, but I think a careful study of them will shed light on the painters' technique of that time. Anyway, when such artists as Turner and Monet began to paint in the open air, they already sought to depict their impressions and fantasies, and not what they actually saw, because real light cannot be depicted.

Clear, concise and empathetic. Thank you for a really educational video.

thank you

This is a pretty thin explanation and it only explains one technique. However there is no linework under the paint in Vermeer's paintings. Neither is perspective what makes Vermeer great, it is the light and tone the "photographic" use of light. Any third rate 17th century artist could master one point perspective. Vermeer describes a tonal range that the human eye is not able to calculate so how did he do it? He certainly did use a lens/ mirror combination. Read "Vermeer's camera" In it the viewpoint of each painting was calculated using one point perspective and projected onto the back wall of Vermeer's studio. Of the 8 paintings done in that room the footprint on the wall matched the size of the 6 paintings. As to ton and colour watch this czcams.com/video/94pCNUu6qFY/video.html

I totally agree with you. I don't think Vermeer used the camera obscure. He was a genius artistically. He hung around with Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, another genius. I agree that Vermeer used perspective only. His paintings were so crisp and so lifelike the camera obscure would have made more work to build a larger painting. Could he have used one, yes, but I doubt it. By the way, where did you find out that he died of meningitis???