Did Rembrandt trace his self-portraits? Painter may have used mirrors and lenses to project his own face onto canvas

He is one of the greatest artists of all time, famed for his detailed portraits that helped cement his reputation as one of the Dutch Old Masters.

But when it came to his self portraits, Rembrandt van Rijn appears to have needed a bit of technological help getting his depictions just right, the Daily Mail reports.

The 17th century artist might have used a combination of mirrors and lenses to project his faceonto a surface, allowing him to trace the outline, according to new research.

Rembrandt is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest painters and an important figure in Dutch history.

Known for his self-portraits and biblical scenes, his early work was small but rich in detail; religious and allegorical themes were prominent.

'David Hockney, and a physicist, Charles Falco, first put forward the idea that the Old Masters may have used optics to help with realism and accuracy in the year 2000,' said Francis O'Neill, an author of the paper.

'However, this was met with some scepticism, with the realism shown in some self-portraits used as an argument that these artists would not need optics for other works.'

Francis O'Neill, an artist based in Oxford, and Sofia Palazzo Corner, from London, looked into the technology that might have been available at the time to test the theory, and published their findings in the Journal of Optics. 

'The evidence suggests that Rembrandt used lens and mirror technology to make his self-portraits,' the authors wrote in the paper.

They proposed five different setups could have been used by the artist.

One used solely a concave mirror, three used a combination of a flat and a concave mirror, and one used two flat mirrors and a lens.

The researchers analysed the works of Rembrandt to look for evidence that these techniques could have been used.

'He made etchings and even a couple of painted self-portraits on copper, a surface upon which projections can be seen very clearly,' said Mr O'Neill.

'His works are known for their use of Chiaroscuro, a contrast of light and dark which would be essential for projections.'

'Furthermore, his self-portraits laughing and with wide-open eyes would require incredible physical discipline to alternate between looking at himself in the mirror and then creating the image - but he wouldn't have had to move his eyes from the drawing surface if he traced a projection.'

'On a separate point, both Rembrandt and other Old Masters made paintings in which their eyes look laterally out of the image.

'It would have been very difficult for them to see and paint themselves this way without the use of projections.'

The researchers also looked at an array of literature describing the techniques artists used at the time.

According to the study, author Martin Kemp, in his book 'The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat', quoted Da Vinci as saying: 'There are some who look at things produced by nature through glass, or other surfaces or transparent veils. They trace outlines on the surface of the transparent medium.'

Da Vinci lived about 100 years before Rembrandt, so this shows the technique was already well-established among artists before the Dutch painter, the researchers said.

The researchers looked at the relative proportions of Rembrandt's head in his late self-portraits, which are consistently and unusually large.

'The evidence suggests he used lenses and projections,' said Mr O'Neill.

'The similarity of his images to projections, in their lighting and soft focus, along with the use of lens technology by his peers and fellow artists, and the contemporary literature on the subject, all support this.'  

His etched self-portraits are also generally very small.

The researchers said these anomalies were necessary for the projection process.