Did Renaissance painters use optical aids for their famous portraits?

Feb. 6, 2004 -- Charles Falco, physicist and optical science professor at the University of Arizona, contends that the great master painters of earlier centuries used optical aids to help them paint. In his Assembly Series presentation, "The Science of Optics; The History of Art, he will detail his findings about this controversial theory.

The lecture will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16 in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, located at the southeast section of Washington University. It is free and open to the public.

If Falco's theory is true, then artists were using optical aids centuries before they were widely developed. He got the idea from reading artist David Hockney's article in the New Yorker. Hockney came up with the original theory that artists as early as the 15th Century were using lenses and other optical aids to create realistic renderings. Falco and Hockney began collaborating, studying hundreds of paintings and applying Falco's scientific knowledge to the question. The answer, contends Falco, is that painters of the stature of van Eyck, Caravaggio, Velazquez and Vermeer used precursors of photographic cameras centuries before the invention of chemical fixtures in 1839.

Studying the question of optical aids and master artists of the Renaissance is only an avocation for Falco, who holds the Chair of Condensed Matter Physics and also serves as a professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1974, his research and scholarship have covered metallic superlattices, X-ray optics, magnetism, magno-optics, superconductivity, and nucleation and epitaxy of thin films.

His work has been honored with many awards, including an Industrial Research 100 Award, a Technology 100 Award, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Distinguished U.S. Scientist Award. Professional activities include serving on governmental panels and research teams, most notably for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Falco also is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is a member of the Optical Society of America and the International Society for Optical Engineering.

Falco to give additional talk in the evening on "The Art of the Motorcycle"

Another subject that marries Falco's interests in art and engineering is the motorcycle. Because of his expertise on the subject, the Guggenheim Museum in New York tapped Falco as co-curator for "The Art of the Motorcycle "exhibition in 1998. It was the most popular exhibition in the museum's history. Falco will give a presentation on the art of the motorcycle at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16 in Graham Chapel. This talk is free and open to the public.

For more information on either presentation, call (314) 935-4620 or visit the Assembly Series web page (http://wupa.wustl.edu/assembly).