What was this device painters used to refresh tired eyes?
March 9, 2017 5:46 PM Subscribe
I once read a description of a special device something like a small box lined with black material - I think - that painters once upon a time - 19th century or earlier? - used to hold against their face and look into to refresh their tired eyes. Can't remember the source; no luck trying to Google this.
and it seems like claude glass may get you better results due to the tv show of the same name.
posted by noloveforned at 7:04 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by noloveforned at 7:04 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: The short answer is that Allee Katze has identified what I was looking for. But noloveforned's answer needs commenting. My question arose when I was recently reading PrairyErth by William Least-Heat Moon. He describes a Claude Glass as a small convex mirror device that was used by landscape painters starting in the 17th century as a landscape viewing device. This reminded me that I had read about another tool that painters used, and this is what my question was about. The black mirror that Allee Katze notes Capote describes in Music for Chameleons was a flat black mirror mounted in a case and was used not for viewing landscapes but for resting the eyes by staring into; used by Gaugin, Renoir and Van Gogh according to Capote. Some people apparently refer to the Claude Glass as a black glass or black mirror, causing some confusion between the two terms. At least that's the way I understand it at this point. So two interesting tools, but different.
posted by Jackson at 7:59 PM on March 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Jackson at 7:59 PM on March 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
Why use a mirror in the eye-resting device instead of, say, black velvet?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:31 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:31 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Interesting, never heard this usage (have heard of 'black mirror' in reference to tv/phone screens, but I have heard of the exact opposite, a Bauhaus experiment known as a GanzeWelt (whole world) sphere. Basically the opposite of a sensory deprivation chamber, it's a large frosted glass sphere (body or just head sized) surrounded by white lights, that you get inside. Because there's nothing for the eyes to focus on, and because the white light is basically pure but unstructured information, your brain is forced to fill in the (nonexistent) details and you...well apparently you just trip balls.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:53 PM on March 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by sexyrobot at 8:53 PM on March 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
I thought a "black mirror" was a scrying device, used like a crystal ball. This would not be used for resting your eyes, its for altering your consciousness. Hmm.
posted by jbenben at 9:57 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jbenben at 9:57 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
In fact!
Truth be told, I uh, did it once when I was about 5 years old while looking at a window with the light on inside and it was dark outside. I tried and tried to recreate that "feeling" but it only happened once by accident.
I just re-read the passage in Music for Chameleons concerning the black mirror - I have a Capote Askme I've been long contemplating and am a huge fan - anyway, I think Capote is conflating a Claude Glass and an object for scrying on purpose. I also don't doubt that painters might accidentally get themselves into an altered state and accidentally "scryed" themselves a vision or two while using the Claude Glass. That seems very likely.
Here is an article about an exhibit of black mirrors a few years back that explains a lot of the history and also mentions Capote's use of the term.
posted by jbenben at 10:20 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Truth be told, I uh, did it once when I was about 5 years old while looking at a window with the light on inside and it was dark outside. I tried and tried to recreate that "feeling" but it only happened once by accident.
I just re-read the passage in Music for Chameleons concerning the black mirror - I have a Capote Askme I've been long contemplating and am a huge fan - anyway, I think Capote is conflating a Claude Glass and an object for scrying on purpose. I also don't doubt that painters might accidentally get themselves into an altered state and accidentally "scryed" themselves a vision or two while using the Claude Glass. That seems very likely.
Here is an article about an exhibit of black mirrors a few years back that explains a lot of the history and also mentions Capote's use of the term.
posted by jbenben at 10:20 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
John Dee's black mirror that he used for scrying is in The British Museum. It's made of obsidian 'Brought to Europe after the Conquest of Mexico. Acquired by Doctor Dee for use in his magical pursuits during late 16thC.'
I also think looking in a black mirror to rest your eyes is a one-time made-up literary fancy. All you need to do to rest your eyes from concentrating on something at a distance is look at something close up and blink. Or close your eyes for a bit.
posted by glasseyes at 3:10 AM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
I also think looking in a black mirror to rest your eyes is a one-time made-up literary fancy. All you need to do to rest your eyes from concentrating on something at a distance is look at something close up and blink. Or close your eyes for a bit.
posted by glasseyes at 3:10 AM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Re. Johnny Wallflower, as I said in my original post, the way I vaguely remember the description of what I'll call The Eye Refresher was indeed a box lined with something like black velvet and not a mirror. I've never read Capote's piece, so what I read was definitely from some other source. Art History majors, where are you when we need you?
posted by Jackson at 5:56 AM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Jackson at 5:56 AM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Could you thinking about Martin's Margins? or here
Quote from the site: "In England, especially between 1758 and about 1790, the so-called Martin’s Margins became popular. London optician Benjamin Martin (1704-1782) developed these Visual Glasses in 1756 in an attempt to reduce the supposed damage to the eyes from excessive light. The aperture of the lenses was reduced by a horn annulus placed inside the ordinary sized frame. They were described in his "Essay on Visual Glasses (Vulgarly called Spectacles)" and then remained popular during the Revolutionary War period. Martin felt that these smaller sized lenses were beneficial for the eyesight. Interest in them, however, faded after the turn of the 19th century."
This link has information about snow goggles which prevent snow blindness where there is a a lot of glare. (As kids we learned to make these out of birch bark, but for us it was entirely theoretical) While the information given here is about Inuit snow goggles you might be thinking of a similar device, only European, where a thin slit is cut in a solid material to reduce the amount of light coming to the eye. This would be an alternative to tinted lenses which were probably first used in the late 1200's. Here is another site with information about snow goggles which shows a different design and mentions how they would be darkened with lampblack to make them more effective.
Or could you be thinking of the camera obscura?
There were many topical substances applied to tired eyes to make them less sore, ranging from pulverized goat's liver, to mother's milk, with different remedies being recommended depending on the colour of the patient's eyes. But I don't know of any black velvet lined box - and I am now really curious - I am hoping that the suggestions I am offering might help trigger your memory and give us more information so we can track it down.
posted by Jane the Brown at 1:39 PM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Quote from the site: "In England, especially between 1758 and about 1790, the so-called Martin’s Margins became popular. London optician Benjamin Martin (1704-1782) developed these Visual Glasses in 1756 in an attempt to reduce the supposed damage to the eyes from excessive light. The aperture of the lenses was reduced by a horn annulus placed inside the ordinary sized frame. They were described in his "Essay on Visual Glasses (Vulgarly called Spectacles)" and then remained popular during the Revolutionary War period. Martin felt that these smaller sized lenses were beneficial for the eyesight. Interest in them, however, faded after the turn of the 19th century."
This link has information about snow goggles which prevent snow blindness where there is a a lot of glare. (As kids we learned to make these out of birch bark, but for us it was entirely theoretical) While the information given here is about Inuit snow goggles you might be thinking of a similar device, only European, where a thin slit is cut in a solid material to reduce the amount of light coming to the eye. This would be an alternative to tinted lenses which were probably first used in the late 1200's. Here is another site with information about snow goggles which shows a different design and mentions how they would be darkened with lampblack to make them more effective.
Or could you be thinking of the camera obscura?
There were many topical substances applied to tired eyes to make them less sore, ranging from pulverized goat's liver, to mother's milk, with different remedies being recommended depending on the colour of the patient's eyes. But I don't know of any black velvet lined box - and I am now really curious - I am hoping that the suggestions I am offering might help trigger your memory and give us more information so we can track it down.
posted by Jane the Brown at 1:39 PM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: No, definitely not Martin's Margins, or camera obscura, or topical substances. But I'm afraid that I can't offer any more information than I already have.
posted by Jackson at 4:39 PM on March 10, 2017
posted by Jackson at 4:39 PM on March 10, 2017
Response by poster: Several discussions with art historians have all ended with them assuming that I must be thinking of a Claude Glass. However, none of the references given to me have actually mentioned the use of the Claude Glass for refreshing tired eyes. Perhaps I misinterpreted the term 'refresh' in both my original reading of the term and in Capote's piece. Perhaps 'refresh' was meant not in the sense of 'physically tired' but rather as 'provide a new perspective,' which the Claude Glass most definitely did. In any event, I retire from the field, accepting this conclusion without being completely satisfied.
posted by Jackson at 7:53 AM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Jackson at 7:53 AM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Allee Katze at 6:51 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]