Week 2: Math and Art

This week's topic, Math and Art, focuses on the idea that artists either intentionally or unintentionally use math to help create their art. As someone who has little knowledge in the arts, I always assumed that artists used perspective based on how they viewed the world because that's just how we see it. However, as professor Vesna points out, it was Brunelleschi who first used mathematics for perspective drawing.

Leonardo da Vinci was a very famous renaissance artist who constantly used mathematics to help create more visually appealing art. For instance, in his painting the Mona Lisa, da Vinci uses the golden ratio (1:0.618) because it is believed to be the most appealing. We can also see he implements golden ratio rectangles in many of his works including The Vitruvian Man and The Last Supper. While looking at the Mona Lisa, I better understand how something so simple as placement of her features could offer a more pleasing visual. To the untrained eye, one might just see a simple portrait of a woman in a rectangular canvas. However, da Vinci uses both perspective and golden ratios to help illustrate his painting. 

Da Vinci certainly wasn't the only artist to implement these mathematical techniques into his artwork. MC Escher was also an artist who took math and applied it to his own style. Unlike Leonardo da Vinci, Escher would use math and art as a juxtaposition and create drawings that seemed mathematically impossible such as this one (Relativity): 

"BRUNELLESCHI and the Re-Discovery of Linear Perspective." MaItaly. 2011. Web. Photograph. 11 Apr. 2016.

"M.C. Escher - Impossible Mathematical Art - Math Central." M.C. Escher - Impossible Mathematical Art - Math Central. Photograph. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"National Gallery of Art." M.C. Escher — Life and Work. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 10 April 2016. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Photograph. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.