by Jon Lackman | 1 December 2008 | Baroque/Neoclassical
According to ANSA,
Caravaggio’s reputation for revolutionary artistic genius has received a further boost following the discovery he may have used fireflies to create primitive ”photographs”. Roberta Lapucci, conservation chief at the Florence-based SACI institute, believes the baroque artist created a firefly powder as an essential tool after converting his entire studio into a kind of camera obscura. Writing in the monthly art journal Stile Arte, Lapucci reports Caravaggio filtered light through a purpose-made hole in his ceiling, using a biconvex lens and a concave mirror to reflect the image he planned to paint directly onto the canvas … Analysing the content of Caravaggio’s paintings, Lapucci discovered traces of photosensitive substances that react to light.
On the website of Stile Arte, I see an article by Stefania Mattioli on Roberta Lapucci’s researches, but no article by Lapucci.
