Week 2 Math and Art

This week's topic, Math and Art, focuses on the idea that artists either intentionally or unintentionally use math to help create their art. As someone who has little knowledge in the arts, I always assumed that artists used perspective based on how they viewed the world because that's just how we see it. However, as Professor Vesna points out, it was Brunelleschi who first used mathematics for perspective drawing.



Leonardo da Vinci was a very famous renaissance artist who constantly used mathematics to help create more visually appealing art. For instance, in his painting the Mona Lisa, da Vinci uses the golden ratio (1:0.618) because it is believed to be the most appealing. We can also see he implements golden ratio rectangles in many of his works including The Vitruvian Man and The Last Supper. While looking at the Mona Lisa, I better understand how something so simple as placement of her features could offer a more pleasing visual. To the untrained eye, one might just see a simple portrait of a woman in a rectangular canvas. However, da Vinci uses both perspective and golden ratios to help illustrate his painting. 


Da Vinci certainly wasn't the only artist to implement these mathematical techniques into his artwork. MC Escher was also an artist who took math and applied it to his own style. Unlike Leonardo da Vinci, Escher would use math and art as a juxtaposition and create drawings that seemed mathematically impossible such as this image below. 

"Relativity"


Sources:

“The Last Supper (Leonardo Da Vinci).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Apr. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo_da_Vinci). Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

"M.C. Escher - Impossible Mathematical Art - Math Central." M.C. Escher - Impossible Mathematical Art - Math Central. Photograph. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 16 April 2017. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded

Abbott, Edwin A., editor. “Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884.” Preface, Flatland, by E. A. Abbott, 1884, www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FLPF.HTM. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

“BRUNELLESCHI and the Re-Discovery of Linear Perspective.” MaItaly, 27 Apr. 2011, maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/brunelleschi-and-the-re-discovery-of-linear-perspective/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.



Comments

  1. UnknownApril 19, 2017 at 1:26 PM

    I too found it very interesting how the perspective and mathematical art of Di Vinci made his work so aesthetically pleasing. I am wondering whether or not he was aware of the mathematical concepts and used the golden ratio to measure it out or if he instead made the painting in the most astheticlaly pleasing way possible to him and that happened to resemble the golden ratio. In a similar way that a talented baseball player is able to throw the ball in the exact way that maximizes its distance without actually measuring out the physics to do so, Di Vinci could have tried many alternatives that ultimately led him to painting the mona lisa in this way.

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  2. Desma 9 Blog Will McInernyApril 19, 2017 at 10:09 PM

    After reading your blog post, your perception of Di Vinci's famous Mona Lisa really was eye opening. I especially liked the point about how to the untrained eye, the Mona Lisa seems like a simple portrait, but after further examination can be analyzed deeper to see the true mastery behind the work. All in all, I thought your analysis of Math and Art was very interesting and helped me understand the connection that much more.

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