A Masterly Technique

When I first saw, as a freshman in art school, the portrait drawings of Hans Holbein the Younger, I immediately began to wonder how the artist could have captured likenesses with such apparent accuracy in so few lines. Over the years I was fortunate to see a number of Holbein’s portraits (both drawings and paintings) in person, and the almost photographic accuracy of the works left me with the sense that some optical devices may have played a role in his working process.

David Hockney began his 2001 groundbreaking book, , with a similar illuminating moment during a visit he took to London’s National Gallery to see a series of portrait