This week, I learned a lot about the history of art and its undeniable contributions to the field of mathematics. I really enjoyed Dr. Vesna’s explanation of the golden rectangle, as I had no idea that it was what the Parthenon was based upon. Abbott’s “Flatland” provided a new perspective on how I view my own reality in “Spaceland.” He took our reality as we know it and projected it onto the 2D plane. It made me curious how a 4th or 5th dimensional being might describe life in a 3D world like ours.
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| Egyptian paintings |
Another thing that I found incredibly interesting was Giotti’s implementation of depth in his works. I was appalled that up until the 13th century there had been no depiction of depth in art. My mind immediately went to the instantly recognizable Egyptian paintings, which notoriously lack depth. One could argue that our models for 3D rendering/modelling today, a technology utilized in both art and engineering fields, stemmed from Giotti’s and Brunelleschi’s understanding of perspective and a single vanishing point. These equations formed the foundation for future generations of artists to improve the depiction of reality onto 2D planes.
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| Giotto's Scenes from the Life of Mary Magdalene- Mary Magdalene's Voyage to Marseilles 1320 |
Art and mathematics weren’t separate as art progressed. Most of the artists were also the mathematicians that discovered these characteristic formulas to better depict reality in art. This goes back to last week’s theme of the two cultures; finding a skilled artist that is also a brilliant mathematician in 2018 seems farfetched. When the two cultures began to diverge, both took formulas with them and continued to deepen humans’ understanding of mathematics. Now we grow up in a world where at the age of 5, I learned how to depict depth in a drawing for the first time by drawing a cube. Something I thought that both mathematicians and artists would find interesting is the Möbius strip: a surface with only one side, which ironically can easily be made from a strip of paper with two sides.  |
| A Möbius strip: Note how you can trace from any point on the surface and continue along the loop and arrive back at the same position you began at while traversing every part of the surface. |
References:
Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.
Byrne, Stephen. “Egyptian Painting.” Ancient Egyptian Painting Facts for Kids, www.historyforkids.net/egyptian-painting.html.
Dowell, Michael. “Secrets of the Cube.” How to Draw - Lesson 02 - Secrets of the Cube, www.drawingpower.org/drawing-lesson-02-secrets-of-the-cube.htm.
“Giotto Di Bondone.” Giotto Di Bondone - The Complete Works, www.giottodibondone.org/.
“Möbius Strip.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip.
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
I especially like your insight that current 3d modeling wouldn't be possible without the work of Giotto and Brunelleschi. While those models are mathematical models based on equations, these equations likely wouldn't be as refined as they are without the work of artists iterating on the process over and over again, improving it each time. It further illustrates the interrelationship between math and art.
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