Week 2 | Math + Art
As Prof. Vesna mentioned in the beginning of the lecture, most people consider math and art as two separate worlds, and I initially shared this feeling. Math is extremely logical and rigorously proved, while art is more spontaneous and uncertain. Yet, throughout this week’s lecture and reading, Prof. Vesna connected these two through several points.
One of them is the golden ratio, mentioned in the lecture. As an engineering major, the golden ratio is just a numerical constant. However, the Parthenon and the masterpiece Mona Lisa, both of which greatly utilize the golden ratio, are aesthetically appealing. These are not simply coincidences but rather evidence of the connection between the golden ratio, a mathematical term, with art.
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| The Parthenon at Athens, Greece, 432 BC. It is the first architectural work fully utilizing the golden ratio. (Pantheon Golden Ratio) |
Another example that Prof. Vesna gave out in lecture is the Vitruvian Man. The artist Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry through this masterpiece. He connected the idea of proportion, a term from mathematics, with his art piece and greatly influenced later artists such as Piet Mondrian, who emphasized the importance of simple geometry, and Le Corbusier, who often utilized the human proportion and Fibonacci number in his designs.
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| Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. It demonstrates the perfect human body ratio. (Leonardo da Vinci, The Vitruvian Man) |
All these artists and architects integrated mathematics into their artwork, especially the idea of proportion within the field of geometry. By combining these elements, the artwork not only gains originality but also gains aesthetic beauty. Therefore, mathematics can be another representation of the artists and architects, but in a more abstract way. On the other hand, the artwork can be viewed as the illustration of those arbitrary numbers and ratios. Art, science, and mathematics are parallel to each other as each is able to demonstrate the other two but in a different representation.
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| Tableau I by Piet Mondrian. The artwork only contains simple geometries, lines, and simple color, a typical style for Piet Mondrian. (Piet Mondrian, Tableau I) |
Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Vitruvian Man. 1590. Madrid, Italy. Leonardo's vitruvian man. https://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/submissions/clabaugh/history/leonardo.html. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.
Vesna, Victoria. DESMA 9 Lecture Notes, Lecture 2. University of California, Los Angeles, Apr. 2017, https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/684222/pages/unit-2-view?module_item_id=11226140. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.
Mondrian, Piet. Tableau I, 1921. Self portrait 1918 - by Piet Mondrian. http://www.piet-mondrian.org/tableau-i.jsp. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.
"Piet Mondrian-paintings, biography,quotes of Piet Mondrian." Piet Mondrian and his paintings. 16 Apr. 2017. http://www.piet-mondrian.org.
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