The crucial role that math plays in creating art is often
times overlooked. It is important
to go back and recognize the ways in which math is incorporated into works of
art and how famous artists came up with revolutionary ideas that changed
artists approach to drawing.
This week’s lecture revealed that math and art are much more
intertwined than you might think.
Buckminster Fuller stated that we were all born as geniuses, creative
and with the ability to be whatever we wanted to be, however, we become “de-geniused”
when we enter into the educational system and start to believe the lie that
math and art are unrelated.
Brunelleschi was credited to be the first person to properly use linear
perspective in about 1413; he studied geometry to develop his ideas on
perspective. And lastly, the golden ratio is a technique artists use, as shown
in the Parthenon, to design a perfectly symmetrical building. These are only three
examples of how art and mathematics are related, however, there are infinitely
many more ways we could show their connection.
Leonardo da Vinci was brilliant in the way he incorporated
math into his artwork. His piece
of work known as The Last Supper is a
perfect example of one-point linear perspective. This perspective uses a single vanishing point to create an
illusion of depth. Not only that,
but da Vinci’s famous work called the Vitruvian
Man is a depiction of how math is in art. The Vitruvian Man
by da Vinci is meant to resemble how the human body is perfectly proportioned
and how architects should use those proportions to design and create perfect
buildings.
Mathematics is the magic behind all brilliant artwork. It is the backbone for the design in
architecture, and the juxtaposition of math, art, and science, reveals the
complex mathematical formulas behind creative masterpieces.
"Golden Ratio." Golden Ratio.
MathsIsFun.com, 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/golden-
ratio.html>.
"Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper –
ItalianRenaissance.org." Italian Renaissance.
ItalianRenaissance.org, 20 June 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.italianrenaissance.org/a-closer-look-leonardo-da-vincis-last-supper/>.
Paralle. Lesson 3: Vanishing Points and Looking
at Art (n.d.): n. pag. Marc Frantz, 2000. Web.
<http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf>.
Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole
UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>
"Vitruvian Man, The Proportions of a Human
Figure." Leonardo Da Vinci. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.davincilife.com/vitruvianman.html>.
As you mentioned earlier, when things/objects recede, they appear smaller. Linear perspective is the formula we all use to show this illusion of three dimensional space on a two dimensional surface. Da Vinci used one point perspective in "The Last Supper" where all the lines merge at a single "vanishing point" on the horizon line, which is directly from the viewer's point of view to the figure of the Christ.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, In that way the receding perspective lines lead the viewer's eye to Jesus.