David Hockney's Special Knowledge

David Hockney's Secret Knowledge (BBC, 2004) is an artist's historical investigation of the

use of optics by artists throughout the majority of history. The amazing thing is that in my

educational career (BA in Costume design and history at Boston University) I spent many many

many hours examining period paintings, especially portraiture as those are the works that have

the most obvious fashions. And no one, not an art history professor (I was an art history minor)

not a costume history book, not one person in my college years brought this to our attention.

I think that David Hockney is as shocked as we are that this was happening so prolifically

and blatantly since the early fifteenth century. His re-creations and investigations are fascinating

and most significantly, do nothing to belittle the skill of the artists. He points out that mirrors

and lenses are tools, that they were the 'state of the art' for their time period. Hockney never

lessens the importance or skill level of the artist. I would only question why, if this was state

of the art and used by many prominent artists, it was kept under wraps. Prior to our modern

age, word of mouth got information around at quite a lively pace. There were servants, models,

patrons and wives to gossip simply for lack of entertainment. I find it wondrous to think

this was kept a secret by every person connected to optic using artists.

Regardless if they used optics or not, this doesn't lessen these artists skill levels, or lessen

the beauty of their work. In my opinion, it just adds another layer to the work and opens up

a whole other level of questions about just how they did what they did. After all, my costume

professors did advocate tracing of figures from fashion magazines as a way to add more dynamic

poses to our repertoire!