{"id":123,"date":"2009-04-04T06:46:01","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T10:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=123"},"modified":"2009-04-04T06:46:01","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T10:46:01","slug":"la-camera-di-canaletto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/la-camera-di-canaletto\/","title":{"rendered":"La Camera di Canaletto?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking of misleading words (see my recent series ‘Misleading Word of the Day’<\/span><\/a>), another word that I have often seen included in lists of so called \u2018falsi amici\u2019<\/strong> (false friends) or false cognates is \u2018camera\u2019<\/strong>. I don\u2019t however consider \u2018camera\u2019<\/strong> a \u2018false friend\u2019 but rather a \u2018helpful friend\u2019 because it is one of the many Italian words which can help you to understand the Latin elements in English a bit better, and perhaps to learn a little history at the same time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Camera\u2019<\/strong> in Italian means \u2018room\u2019, whereas the gadget that we use to take photographs is called a macchina fotografica<\/strong> (literally a \u2018photographic machine\u2019). But it is not really true that the Italian \u2018camera\u2019<\/strong> and the English \u2018camera\u2019 are two completely different things, and to understand why that is, we need to delve into the fascinating history of photography.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For centuries artists and scientists had profited from the phenomena whereby an inverted image could be projected upon a surface, such as a wall for example, inside a \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> (Latin for \u2018darkened chamber\u2019), by allowing light to enter through a tiny hole which acted as a simple lens. In 1545 the first published illustration of the \u2018camera obscura\u2019, commonly known as the \u2018pinhole camera\u2019, appeared in a book by the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Gemma Frisius<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 16th century the pinhole camera was enhanced by the addition of a convex glass lens. The Venetian author Daniele Barboro<\/strong>, in a perspective manual for architects and artists, described how to draw from an image projected by a \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> onto a paper screen. The early \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> obviously had many limitations, not the least of which being that, as you had to physically get inside it, it certainly wasn\u2019t portable! The next logical development therefore was to place the \u2018observer\u2019 outside the camera and this was achieved by means of shrinking the room to the size of a portable box with the lens on one side and a ground glass screen, onto which the image was projected, on the opposite side.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the development of a practical and portable piece of kit the possibility of producing works of art on an almost industrial scale appeared alluringly to many ambitious artists. One of the best known of these was the Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal<\/strong>, better known as Canaletto<\/strong> (1697-1768). Canaletto<\/strong> would employ his \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> in situ to make a detailed drawing of the view commissioned by his client. This preparatory \u2018sketch\u2019 would then be elaborated and \u2018colored in\u2019 in his studio. Canaletto<\/strong>\u2019s use of this technique helps to explain two notable aspects of his work: firstly his incredibly accurate perspective and proportioning, and secondly his prodigious output. Canaletto\u2019s original \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> has been preserved in the Correr Museum, Venice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first \u2018photographic\u2019 cameras were developed directly from this later type of \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em> by Fox Talbot<\/strong> and the French pioneers of photography, Ni\u00e9pce<\/strong> and Daguerre<\/strong>, who invented light sensitive plates which were placed inside the \u2018chamber\u2019 or \u2018camera\u2019 in order to capture the image projected by the lens. These days of course the image is captured digitally, but nevertheless the basis of the digital camera is still a \u2018camera obscura\u2019, that is a darkened chamber with a lens on one side and a means of capturing the image on the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

So now you see why I say that the English word \u2018camera\u2019 and the Italian word camera<\/strong> are not two different things, it is simply that the English name for the photographic \u2018camera\u2019 is a shortened version of \u2018camera obscura\u2019<\/em>. In Italian we still use the word camera oscura<\/strong> (n.b. we drop the \u2018b\u2019 in Italian) to mean photographic dark room, although with the advent of digital photography this is of course gradually disappearing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just remember, next time you are visiting Italy if you tell the shop assistant \u2018vorrei delle pile per la mia camera\u2019<\/strong> you might get some strange looks as you will be asking for some batteries for your room!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of misleading words (see my recent series ‘Misleading Word of the Day’), another word that I have often seen included in lists of so called \u2018falsi amici\u2019 (false friends) or false cognates is \u2018camera\u2019. I don\u2019t however consider \u2018camera\u2019 a \u2018false friend\u2019 but rather a \u2018helpful friend\u2019 because it is one of the many…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,619],"tags":[646,763,769],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-italian-language","tag-camera-obscura","tag-la-camera","tag-la-macchina-fotografica"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}