Week 2: Math and Art

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 This week's material, which focused on the influence that mathematics and art have on one another, allowed me understand how critical math is to the study of visual arts. The concepts that first helped me grasp the subjects' importance to one another was linear perspective and vanishing point. Linear perspective which is a mathematical system used to represent three dimensional spaces on a flat surface was derived from mathematician, physicist, and astronomer al-Haytham's Book of Optics (UC Online). In this book al-Haytham argued that after light is reflected from an object into the eye, vision occurs in the brain (UC Online). 

in Book of Optics from Tbakhi and Amr

However, it was Brunelleschi, who made the discovery of the single vanishing point rule, who had the first correct formulation of linear perspective (UC Online). A vanishing point is the point where parallel lines receding from the observer seem to come together. (UC Online). After this, Leon Alberti published a treatise which includes the first written account of al-Haytham's science of optics and Brunelleschi's understanding of vanishing point and sets up a visual pyramid, a system with triangles between the eye and an object (UC Online). 

in On Painting from "Visual Pyramid"

These understandings went on to influence more artists including Leonardo da Vinci who used other mathematical concepts such as the golden ratio in his art. This is evident in one of his most famous pieces, The Mona Lisa. The golden ratio is a concept found often in math and art and occurs when the entirety of a figure divided by a larger part is equal to the larger part divided by the short part ("Activity: Golden Ratio"). When applied to art, this makes an image more aesthetically pleasing likely because the golden ratio is frequently found in nature (Lukas). 
from "Activity: Golden Ratio"

Work Cited

“About the Golden Ratio, the Rule of Thirds, and Perspective ' Uni Watch.” Uni Watch, https://uni-watch.com/about-the-golden-ratio-the-rule-of-thirds-and-perspective/. 

“Activity: Golden Ratio.” Leonardo Da Vinci - The Genius, https://www.mos.org/leonardo/activities/golden-ratio. 

“Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” YouTube, UC Online, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg. Accessed 8 Apr. 2022. 

Tbakhi, Abdelghani, and Samir S Amr. “Ibn Al-Haytham: Father of Modern Optics.” Annals of Saudi Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, 2007, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6074172/. 

“Visual Pyramid.” THE DETACHED GAZE, 17 July 2014, https://thedetachedgaze.com/tag/visual-pyramid/. 


Comments

  1. Cheyenne SuzukawaApril 10, 2022 at 8:42 PM

    Hi Misty, I really liked the structure of your blog. You broke down the course material in a very digestible way and you made it very easy to understand how each of these innovators, from al-Haytham to Leonardo da Vinci, developed these concepts and integrated them into the visual arts. The way you end the blog reminds me of the "Fibonacci, Fractals and Financial Markets" video where one of the speakers say that "nature prefers the most efficient method."

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  2. sarah fellnerApril 10, 2022 at 9:14 PM

    Hi Misty! I never knew that the golden ratio was used in The Mono Lisa until this past week. The golden ratio is also found a lot in nature. These small, yet important details found in art make the art itself so much more special. The single vanishing point rule completely changed art. It opened the door for new art, ideas, and techniques. It was extremely important for future art.

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