The camera obscura is a darkened enclosure into which light is admitted through a lens in a small hole. A. Evidence that the use of the camera obscura has long been known is provided by its description in many sources, including works dating back toChinese writers from the fifth century B.C. B. Some historians who have studied paintings by Western masters have found clues indicating that the masters may have secretly used the camera obscura in their works. C. It is now widely believed that the use of the camera obscura led to the development of a style of photographic realism in Western art. D. The camera obscura was most widely used by artists inSeventeenth-century Netherlands, a period when art and science thrived E. The unique features of Vermeer's The Art of Painting make it unlikely that it was made with a camera obscura, as opposed to his other works. F. The artist David Hockney has speculated that artists probably combined the use of the camera A with their own original observations from life.