This week’s lecture video
introduces the idea of mathematics and arts being connected and one of the
example professor mentions is about the golden ratio. It is said that golden ratio is often used by
artists in their works as using golden ratio helps drawings to be more pleasing
to people’s eyes. As a result, there are many paintings and sculptures in which
golden ratio is applied.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of many
artists who incorporates mathematics with arts. One of his painting, Mona Lisa,
is known for using golden ratio. The golden ratio is 1:0.618 and golden
rectangle is the rectangle with dimensions that reflect the golden ratio. Golden
rectangles can be found numerous times on the Mona Lisa. When rectangle is
drawn around her face, this rectangle satisfies golden ratio. Also, proportion
of her had length to her eyes is another case where golden ratio is satisfied. Moreover,
Mona Lisa’s neck to top of her hand also satisfies golden rectangle.
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| Leonardo Da Vinci |
Mona Lisa is a one of most famous
art piece in the world and I believe usage of golden ratio contributed a lot to
its fame. Thus, Mona Lisa can be considered as an example in which we can see
the influence of mathematics on art. Without the use of golden ratio, the Mona
Lisa may have been look less appealing to people’s eyes.
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| Mona Lisa with Golden Ratio/Rectangle |
From this
week’s and last week’s lecture, we can tell that math and science are all
interconnected. Mathematical formulas are being used by artists in their
paintings and sculptures and mathematics are used in chemistry and physics for
experiments or to calculate the force of an object. Science and arts are also
connected in that with science, we see development in technology and this technologies
are used in arts. So even if science, art and math all seems to be all
disconnected, they are actually related in some ways and one of the example is
architecture. Architects need to be good at math, art and physics to come up
with strong, well-built building with beautiful outer appearance.
Sources:
uconlineprogram. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube. 9 April 2012. Web. 16
April 2017.
“Leonardo DaVinci and the Golden Section.” Math Central. N.p, n.d. Web. 16 Apr.2017
Meisner,
Gary. “Da Vinci and the Divine Proportion in Art Composition.” Goldennumber.net. PhiPoint
Solutions.LLC. 7 July 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.
Sanders, Cathleen Watson. MathArt Connections. N.p., 2001. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.
“Leonardo Da
Vinci, His Paintings and Life.” Leonardo
Da Vinci Paintings, Drawings, Quotes, Biography. N.p., 2011. Web. 16 Apr.
2017
Simha, Aditya. "Math as it relates to art and music". History of Math.N.p., 2004. Web. 16 Apr. 2017
Great post! I like the examples you cited about mathematics in art. In particular, I thought it was interesting how the golden ratio appears in many famous artworks since it's appealing to look at. Do you think these works were specifically designed to incorporate the ratio, or does it naturally happen?
ReplyDeleteI think it was specifically designed to incorporate the ratio. While I was doing the research for this post, I read the article about while Leonardo Da Vinci was working on Mona Lisa, he was really obsessed with geometry and he used golden ratio also in other work, "Vitruvian Man".
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