Drawing aids

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Optical drawing aids in art, forerunners of photography, or other
useful utensils--comparable to brushes: This knowledge obviously was
*not* a secret in the 19th century as we all know but common
practice. I do not see why it would be called "secret knowledge"
today. In the centuries before the dawn of photography painters used
optical devices as we all know for a very long time. The question
is: when did it start exactly? I am looking for proof instead of
recent assumptions.

See <URL:http://www.visual-media.be/precursors.html> and some extra
physionotrace images produced with a physionotrace apparatus, a
mechanical wooden instrument with a viewfinder.

Is it possible to find real proof about the use of optical aids,
similar to the physionotrace, by painters in the 15th Century ...

Thomas Weynant


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:52
                 Distributed: Sunday, February 1, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-52-026
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