Hockney and the Old Masters - The Debate Continues

David Hockney's book' Secret Knowledge- rediscovering the techniques of the old masters'.on the historical use of mirrors and lenses as drawing aids ignited a storm of controversy in the artworld when it was published a few years ago. Some of us might regard it as a storm in a teacup, but some academics still consider it worth spending time on.
The New York Times article 'Computer People Reopen Art History Dispute' reports that Microsoft researcher Antonio Criminisi and David Stork, consulting professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and are presenting a paper at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition currently being held in Cambridge, England. Their arguments focus on the imperfections of Van Eyk's rendering of the chandelier in his 'Portrait of Arnolfini and His Wife' are such that he could not have used a lens or mirror as an aid, but rather painted it by eye.
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