Week 2
Math and Art
Born in a math
major family, I was exposed to different basic concepts of math especially
geometry and number sense at an early age. Thinking about the connection
between mathematics and art, the first thing that comes up to most people’s
mind should be the golden ratio. The magic number 1.618 is commonly used to
achieve beauty and balance in the design of art. Leonardo Da Vinci was well
known for his extensive usage of golden ratio in his paintings.
Golden ratio
application in Da Vinci’s paintings Mona Lisa, Bathers at Asnieres, and the
Last Supper.
I also found a
number of interesting designs related to golden ratios in our daily life.
The famous apple
app icloud icon has a masterpiece design using golden ratio. The ripples on the
cloud are made up of circles whose diameters are proportional to the magic number.
On the other hand, the outer rectangular section is also a golden rectangle. Even
today, golden ratio is essential for artists in designing because it makes
people feel comfortable.
The implementation
of math concept in painting can be traced back to 13th century by
the concept of vanishing point. As Dr. Vesna mentioned in the video, Vanishing
point was developed by Brunelleschi in 1413. It is typically important in
painting as he figured out that all parallel lines should converge to a single
point. Applying the vanishing point concept, painters had better control of
position and geometry and their works, as a result, turned out to be more
realistic. The application of math in painting actually distinguished these
works from other artistic work forming two aspect genres, artificial and
natural.
The left figure
shows the concept of vanishing point in 3D painting and the right figure is an
example of artificial painting where the exact position and proportion of
objects are not determinants.
In conclusion,
having a long historical relationship, math and art are not opposites, but more
like intertwined. Although it might be painful to study mathematics, it is
still essential for artists to understand math because it makes their work more
acceptable for publics.
Sources and
reference
Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics.” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9.
I truly like how you involved the use of the golden ratio to not only masterpieces of old art, but also in the current agenda of today's artists. Something as simple as the cloud design for an apple icon is using the golden ratio to attract the eyes of viewers and it is remarkable how the art technique is used. I also agree upon your claims that art and math are intertwined, not only because I said in my own blog, but also because art is the use of shapes and lines to create a flow of thoughts on paper or in space. Our mind sees art as beautiful because we see the shapes, symmetry, and other mathematical concepts within the art.
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