The Intersection of Art and Science Fall 2017

Blog #3:        Before the invention of the Daguerreotype, the first publicly available photography process, 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre people were only familiar with seeing images through the medium of painting. At the end of the 19 th century, photography became a worldwide phenomenon. Everyone wanted a piece of it. At first photography was merely a way to capture a moment in time taking painting to another level. People would have their photo taken because they could finally get a more realistic image of what they looked like. This realistic representation, which had previously been reserved only for people who could afford to commission a painting, was now available to many more people. Photography was also used as a big aid to painters as it allowed them an unlimited amount of time to study complex environments that they could not recreate in their studios.                ...

Anatomical Wax Figures Anatomical wax figures were used as a teaching aid between the mid 17th to 19th century. La Specola in Florence has an amazing collection of the figures. These wax figures have so much detail it’s astounding really. Individual veins and different levels of glossiness to different portions of the body just to name a few. The artists worked alongside the anatomists that were dissecting cadavers and were tasked with reproducing 3-dimensional anatomical models. These figures were created in order to teach students and to broaden the public’s understanding of what was under our skin as it was not common knowledge at that point and they were still making discoveries about the basic structures of the body. Previously the only real way to learn about the body in such a way was to actually observe the dissection of a cadaver, which at one point was taboo itself for religious reasons.   Since these figures were used to broaden public knowledge of the human...

Albrecht D ü rer was a German painter and printmaker who greatly influenced the field of science during the Northern Renaissance. Although most people know D ü rer for his beautiful woodcut of Adam and Eve, he also produced many groundbreaking works in various mediums. He drafted the first perspective terrestrial maps, anatomical Rhinos, maps of the sky, the effects of syphilis, and more. Although D ü rer might not have been correct in all of his assumptions when creating art, his pieces help begin a shift in the way people visualized science and created a greater interest in the fields that he studied. At the time, D ü rer was known and respected as an equal in the field of science. With the mastery of perspective being so new, his visualizations of the earth gained him respect in his early twenties. He had to use geometry and complex thinking in order to achieve the dimensions that he was able to during that time. His artistic and storytelling flare made his work intriguing and ...

Johannes Vermeer was a painter in Europe who lived during the mid 1600's. His father was also painter and had apprenticed in Amsterdam. It was unclear where Vermeer had apprenticed to become a painter. We do know though that he was a part of the Guild of Saint Luke which was an association for painters during his time. He was baptized in the reformed church in 1632 but later married Catharina Bolenes who was Catholic which led to his conversion. There are references to this conversion and religion in some of his works. There isn't a ton of knowledge about Vermeer and his practices or early life, however many of his paintings are considered masterpieces. To this day it is argued about how Johannes created his incredibly realistic paintings. There have been books, such as David Hockney's  Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters , that have argued that Johannes used a primitive version of a camera obscura to create his masterpieces. It w...

                There has been a long connection between art and science. Mainly because of the subjects they both look at, the natural world. Art and science both explore the world through different mediums. Artists, like scientists, study materials, people, culture, history, religion, mythology. As well as simultaneously learn to transform information into something else. In ancient Greece, the word for art was  techne , from which  technique  and  technology  are derived. These terms are aptly applied to both scientific and artistic practices.   However, the curiosity of mankind sparked it all.                   During the high renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci became one of the most famous artists in history for his work fused with scientific investigation. Da Vinci and other artists at the time were concerned with the human body and observing the world closely. Da Vinci...

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, scie...

The daguerreotype was the first practical way to create a permanent camera image, presented in 1839 in Paris. The creator, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre based the daguerreotype off the unfinished work of scientist Joseph Nicephore Niepce, whom he also collaborated with. They worked with copper plates and silver iodide. Eventually Daguerre discovered warmed mercury vapor could develope images a lot more quickly than previous methods. They then used a sodium solution to fix the image. The daguerreotype quickly spread to be used in Europe and in the United States. It became extremely popular in New York, which acquired more daguerreotype portrait studios than all of England. One notable photographer who used this method at the time is Mathew Brady. Brady’s studio was upscale and appealed to the upper class in New York. He often moved around the location of his studio to follow the trendy neighborhoods, and utilized newspapers for advertising. Mathew Brady photographed many celebriti...