As Victoria Vesna mentioned, it is common to be biased
towards math or art while growing up. Even though I was always fond of math, I
enjoyed art as well and took a few art classes outside school. Even though I
was exposed to both disciplines, I never noticed the strong overlap. Victoria
Vesna’s lecture, covering the historical origins of art and how artists
incorporated mathematics to improve art, was very enlightening.
To a casual observer like myself, Giotto’s paintings
do indeed have depth perception, however it is difficult to understand the geometry
creating the depth perception. The image with lines explains, that by inclining
lines above eye level upwards and below eye level downwards, as they moved away
from the observer, Giotto was able to implement depth perception in his
paintings. The concepts of the vanishing point and the golden ratio are equally
fascinating.
It is extremely fascinating how the Fibonacci spiral,
a depiction of the golden ratio, has been observed everywhere in nature, from fruit-lets of a pineapple to the galaxies of the Universe.
Looking back at my school days, I remember studying symmetry
as a chapter in Math. However, oddly enough, our perception of human beauty, a
very artistic notion, is also defined in part by symmetry. As mentioned in an
article in The Economist it has been established
by biologists that symmetrical people are more attractive.
Last summer I visited the infamous Louvre museum in
Paris. The art was indeed enrapturing, but I think still missed out as I was
only viewing the art in isolation. I missed identifying the vanishing point, or
the golden rectangles used in the Mona Lisa, or the beauty of the symmetry. I
have changed my perspective of both art and science and I am certain I will
appreciate the Louvre much more if I go back to visit Paris someday.
References
"Does the 'Earlier Version' Display Leonardo's
Mathematical Principles? - The Mona Lisa Foundation." The Mona Lisa Foundation. N.p., 12 Sept. 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.
<http://monalisa.org/2012/09/12/leonardo-and-mathematics-in-his-paintings/>.
"Facing the Facts." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 16 Aug. 2014. Web. 07 Apr.
2015.
<http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21609537-theory-about-why-symmetrical-faces-attract-has-just-fallen-wayside-facing>.
"Gods Fingerprint→ The Fibonacci Sequence -
Golden Ratio and The Fractal Nature of Reality." YouTube. YouTube, 4 May 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VrcO6JaMrM>.
Tyler, Cristopher, and Michael Kubovy.
"Perspective: The Role of Perspective: Page 2." Perspective: The Role of Perspective: Page 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Apr. 2015.
<http://www.webexhibits.org/sciartperspective/perspective2.html>.
Vesna, Victoria.
"Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Apr. 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg>.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI truly agree with you on the importance of vanishing point in paintings. You mentioned the concept of depth perception, I believe it is from the relative positions and proportions of different objects. The vanishing line theory makes objects more organized in space and therefore more realistic. I also like your example of symmetric human beauty. However, I realize that we appreciated more nowadays on unsymmetrical designs which seem to be a new fasion.