Hailey Esses Blog Two: Math and Art


While I knew art, science, math, nature and beauty all intersect, I was eager to learn more this week. Mathematicians have significantly influenced art and science, as seen through the readings, lectures and additional resources. In order to carry out an artistic vision, many times the artists need to use math.

In the section, “Of the Ancient Practice of Painting” of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin Abbott Abbott, who refers to himself and others as different shapes, connects people to shapes, color to math, as well as math and art in creating a circle. It made me think of how creating circles in geometry with a compass greatly influences artists who wish to draw a perfect circle.

Many mathematicians have impacted the fundamentals of art, creating ideas, concepts, and definitions that shape the greatest works of art. For example, in “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion,” Linda Henderson discusses how the artist Salvador Dali explains his surrealist paintings, such as The Persistence of Memory, in regard to Einstein’s theories as well as his thought about Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry.

Dali’s The Persistence of Memory (Nguyen)

Another reference, in Professor Vesna’s lecture, she discusses that Al-Haytham, a mathematician, studied vision and how light reflects from an object into one’s eye (Vesna). Many artists, particularly in the Renaissance, used his findings in their paintings (Lorch).

Da Vinci’s Last Supper (Zucker)

Likewise, one of the greatest artists of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci, a sculptor, painter, architect and engineer, employed math in his art (“Leonardo da Vinci: Second Florentine Period (1500–08)”). He studied geometry and helped define perspective as well as the converse of perspective (Vesna). He used the golden ratio, specific relationships between the sizes of objects and shapes, where the shorter side is to the longer side as the longer part is to the whole, which is exemplified in his Mona Lisa and Last Supper. Another of his significant accomplishments includes the creation of the "Vitruvian man," a drawing of a human with geometrically ideal proportions.

Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa: Leonardo da Vinci”)

Artists and scientists use math in their creative work and expression to clearly portray their visions, from beauty to nature to theories. They greatly influence each other. This intersection creates a juxtaposition of these very different, but clearly interconnected, disciplines.

Da Vinci’s "Vitruvian Man" (Nayeri)

Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” (Nayeri)


Works Cited

Abbott, EA, et al. “Flatland, by EA Abbott, 1884.” Ibiblio, http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM. Accessed 8 April 2022.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–10, https://doi.org/10.2307/1575193. Accessed 8 Apr. 2022.

“Leonardo da Vinci: Second Florentine period (1500–08).” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci/Second-Florentine-period-1500-08. Accessed 7 April 2022.

Lorch, Richard. "Ibn al-Haytham". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Feb. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-al-Haytham. Accessed 8 April 2022.

“Mona Lisa: Leonardo da Vinci.” Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/leonardo-da-vinci/a/leonardo-mona-lisa. Accessed 8 April 2022.

Nayeri, Farah. “Italy to Lend Leonardo da Vinci Works to France in a Masterpiece Swap (Published 2019).” The New York Times, 26 September 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/arts/design/da-vinci-vitruvian-man.html. Accessed 8 April 2022.

Nguyen, Clinton. “This Clock Is a Perfect Homage to Dalì.” Business Insider, 11 May 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/this-clock-is-a-perfect-homage-to-dal-2016-5. Accessed 8 April 2022.

Vesna, Victoria. (2022). “Mathematics, Perspective, Time, Space.” DESMA 9. Class lecture at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, April 4, 2022.

Zucker, Steven, and Beth Harris. “The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (article).” Khan Academy,

            https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-

            americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/a/leonardo-last-supper. Accessed 8 April 2022

Comments

  1. Paravi DasApril 8, 2022 at 2:17 PM

    Hi Hailey! I appreciate what you mentioned about how “Artists and scientists use math in their creative work and expression to clearly portray their visions, from beauty to nature to theories. They greatly influence each other. This intersection creates a juxtaposition of these very different, but clearly interconnected, disciplines.” This push and pull observation is something that I touched upon in my own post, and proved to be very interesting when researching. Do you think this vision that artists and scientists alike crave to clearly portray is automatically linked to both art and math? As in, do you believe that when someone sets out to bring their idea to life, how do you think they would incorporate the “opposite” subject? From the get go and with intention, like da Vinci? Or is it something that slowly intertwines with their work, unplanned? It’s a subjective question, but one that’s been on my mind :)

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