Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters

HOCKNEY, David

ISBN 10: 0142005010 / ISBN 13: 9780142005019

Published by Viking, New York, 2001

About this Item

With 460 illustrations, mostly in color. 296 pages. 4to, glossy pictorial wrappers. New York: Viking, (2001). First softcover edition. A fine copy.

Seller Inventory # 250191

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
• Publisher: Viking, New York
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0142005010
• ISBN 13: 9780142005019
• Binding: paperback
• Edition: First.
• Condition: fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • ART

About this title

Synopsis

The author presents detailed theories on how some of Western art's famous masterpieces by such artists as da Vinci, Caravaggio, Velßzquez, and Van Eyck were actually created while discussing how his speculations have sparked worldwide anger and astonishment.

Review

David Hockney's brilliant Secret Knowledge is the fruit of his practical and historical investigation into how artists from the 15th century onward produced such vividly realistic drawings and paintings. Hockney's conclusions are simple but devastating. He argues that, "from the early 15th century many Western artists used optics--by which I mean mirrors and lenses (or a combination of the two)--to create living projections". The results are extraordinary. Secret Knowledge carefully explains how Masaccio, Van Eyck, Holbein, Caravaggio, Vermeer and Ingres all used optical aids, as it carefully takes apart the paintings and recreates the instruments and techniques used by artists from as early as the 1430s.

Hockney concedes that his opinions have been attacked by the mainstream art world that has complained that "for an artist to use optical aids would be 'cheating'; that somehow I was attacking the idea of innate genius". As a practising artist himself, his response is persuasive: "optics would have given artists a new tool with which to make images that were more immediate, and more powerful". Hockney concludes that this does not "diminish their achievements. For me, it makes them all the more astounding". Hockney's evidence is compelling and convincing, and brilliantly conveyed in this beautiful book, complete with details, foldouts and over 400 illustrations in sumptuous colour. Secret Knowledge also contains a collection of primary evidence detailing artist's use of optical devices, and Hockney's correspondence on the subject over the last two years. This book will revolutionise how we look at the art of the past. As Hockney himself suggests, "exciting times are ahead". --Jerry Brotton