Analysis of Da Vinci Paintings and Leica

[NB23]

Are these two videos really supposed to show any resemblance to Da Vinci's portraits?

[E. von Hoegh]

What I do not understand is why a double Gauss lens made by Leitz gives different image characteristics from a dG lens made by Nikon, say.

[Jed Freudenthal]

I would not compare a Leonardo painting with a Leica lens, but it is a fact that photography is based on (oil)painting principles. This has been documented by H.P Robinson in his photography manual of 1869, and has been reprinted many times (Eastman Kodak 1971 e.g). I doubt that the similarities between painting and phtography show up in 35 mm. But in larger format it is certainly the case. In the last 20 years the high definition in photography is back again, and that is what Leonardo and other great masters just were doing. Imagine, the brush strokes of Leonardo in the Mona Lisa were less than 2 mm by one hair broad. And the in 20 layers!! This was High Definition 500 years ago. They painted with a magnifying glass. And most masters did it that way. Some present day photography is a revival of the painting long ago, but with a different technique. However, I think, this a the case with some large format photography. A Leica can show quite some detail, but not that much.

Jed

[NB23]

Jed, I think we're just in the same old rhetorical wether "Art imitates Life or does Life imitate Art?", which was the one main question and basis of the whole rennaissance Art.
But I'm not sure what Leica or Vivitar lenses have anything to do with it.

[Jed Freudenthal]

Painting is using the laws of nature (effect of light). And, in its interpretation this is called chiaroscuro. And, when this is the case in painting, it is certainly so in photography. Leonardo saw it that way 500years ago. And I can quote the painter Constable in a 1816 lecture:' Painting is a science, and should be persued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not landscape be considered as a branch of natural philosophy (physics), of w hich pictures are but the experiment'.
And, I would say, photography can be considered the same way. And, the painter/photographer H.P.Robinson saw it in the 19 th century that way too.

Jed