Blog Post #3

The Renaissance was a period in European history from the 14th to the 17th century. It first began as a cultural movement starting in Italy in the medieval time and made its way west into the rest of Europe, which was the beginning of the early modern age. During the Renaissance many artists and scientist began to appear and changed the way we perceive the real world. Throughout this time in history many artist and scientist would use both fields to invent, create, and study forums that we use today and the birth of the word polymath began.

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a number of different subject areas, such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths include the great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who thrived in several fields in science and the arts.This began to help painters develop other techniques like studying light and shadow.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science during the 1700s. Famous for discovering the atmosphere of Venus and the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reactions. His areas of interests were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the modern Russian literary language.

Lomonosov was the first person to question the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observations of the transit of Venus of 1761, in a small observatory near his house in Petersburg. In 1762, Lomonosov presented an improved design of a reflecting telescope to the Russian Academy of Sciences forum. His telescope had its main mirror adjusted at an angle of four degrees to the telescope's axis. This made the image focus at the side of the telescope tube, where the viewer could look at the image with an eyepiece without blocking the image. However, this invention was not published until 1827, so this type of telescope has become associated with a similar design by William Herschel, the Herschelian telescope.

Lomonosov was also recognized for restoring the ancient art of mosaics. In 1754, in his letter to Leonhard Euler, he wrote that his three years of experiments on the effects of chemistry of minerals on their color led to his deep involvement in mosaic art. In 1763, he set up a glass factory that produced the first stained glass mosaics outside of Italy.

The seventeenth century represented a time and place where scientific inquiry became so prevalent  that science and art were inseparable.Throughout this time newly developed lensed mirrors were being applied to astronomy, microscopy, and the study of optical phenomena. These developments offered new views of nature to artists and scientists. Both science and art have had a connection dating back hundreds of years. By analyzing great scientist and artists it has come to show many people, that without either, these creators and inventors would not have gone that far in their studies.