>Bonjour a tous
>
Je reviens un peu a la charge, au cas ou l'un d'entre vous en aurait
entendu parler, par ex. Voici ce que je viens d'envoyer a Lantra.
Merci bcp d'avance
fenn
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Hello everyone
I've managed to get yet more info! I called up the NG in London and got the
exact description of *their* perspective box (hadn't thought of doing that
before).
It was 'invented' by the Dutch painter Samuel van Hoogstraten around
1655-1660. He was a pupil of Rembrandt's. The NG actually call it the
*peep-show box* (i had perspective box in the novel). It is indeed very
perspectival. The outside and inside are painted and illustrated. The
inside is a domestic scene: 2 views of the interior of a house, very
similar to a house in Bath. The outside has all sorts of different
illustrations, I didn't write them down, mainly because I had some
difficulty understanding! One is Muse Urania (spelling?), on 2 long sides
you've got something about gold coins or someone wearing a gold necklace.
There are only 6 of these boxes left in the world today, of which one in
Bath. The NG doesn't know if there are any in a French-speaking country (as
all I want is the/a French name for it).
I was wondering if someone might for instance have a quick look in one of
their their French Cd-Rom encyclopaedias... or something.
Does this ring a bell to anyone? I can't call up every single museum in France!
Yesterday i thought I'd found it on the web: chambre a stenope (L Da
Vinci), but this is rather like a camera obscura and the NG said that in
this one there were no mirrors, shutters, no glass, nothing that had
anything to do with photography.
MMTIA
Fenn
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mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fenn Georgina Troller
English > French literary translator
Paris
