Week 2: Math + Art

The Flagellation by Piero de la Francesca

After reviewing this week’s materials regarding mathematics and art, I was astounded with some of the information that I learned.  I decided to focus my attention on the artist named Piero de la Francesca who was mentioned in Lecture.  As shown in his painting, “The Flagellation”, he employed several strategies in order to create the illusion of depth by developing a foreground and background and depicting each object in a real-life scale.  This attention to detail in the proportions of his painting came from studying the geometry of vision.  Francesca was committed to creating accurate and real-world like images in his paintings, so investigating the relationships between the eye and an object, as well as the way the eye would see objects in relation to one another shaped the way he created his artwork.  And although it seems obvious to use math when distinguishing accurate proportions in a drawing, it never occurred to me how necessary this mathematic knowledge is in order to create a realistic image from the artists’ perspective. 

Visual representation of the idea of Projective Geometry.

One of Robert Lang's many Origami pieces.

I also found the TED talk by Robert Lang to be extremely interesting and insightful because not only do artists need aspects of math to produce their craft, but there are also several instances where discoveries in the art field come to aid the fields of science.  This was displayed in the research done by Lang on the ancient tradition of Origami.  He showed that Origami was governed by four simple rules, and as long as these rules are not broken, there are endless opportunities to create new forms from one single paper square.  This idea of crease patterns used to form new shapes has been transferred into more practical applications, from airbag inflation design to devices used to keep arteries open in the human body.  These resources further guided my understanding that the arts and sciences are in fact closely intertwined, and the more these fields can use each other and work together, there are infinite limits to what we can discover.

Sources:

"File:Piero - The Flagellation.jpg." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Apr. 2017. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Uconlineprogram. "Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 09 Apr. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Lang, Robert. "The math and magic of origami." Robert Lang: The math and magic of origami | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

"Artwork: Chrysina Beetle, Opus 717." Chrysina Beetle, Opus 717 | Robert J. Lang Origami. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

"Geometric Algebra: Projective Geometry." Slehar. N.p., 24 July 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.