I recently watched the documentary Tim's Vermeer, and highly recommend it, even if you are not all that interested in art. It is a fascinating documentary film about an inventor with no previous experience of painting, Tim Jenison, who decided to duplicate the painting technique of Johannes Vermeer (the painter of The Girl With the Pearl Earring) and his remarkable results. In the course of preparing to duplicate the masterpiece he built a replica of Vermeer's studio and recreated the contents of the room and lighting conditions seen in the original painting, and ground his own lens for his own version of the camera obscura.
The Original Work:
A Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman, 'The Music Lesson'