Week 2: Art + Math


    The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the topic for this week was the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. If there could be only one image that could represent this week’s topic, I couldn’t think of a better artwork to connect art, math, and science. In the lecture, Professor Vesna described the drawing as being “used many times as a symbol and icon of art and science” (Vesna). She also discussed the importance of proportions/ratios in art and the Vitruvian Man is a drawing that represented the proportions of the human body according to an architect named Vitruvius. Proportions are a crucial part of all artworks, but it is especially important in any artwork that is meant to be an accurate representation of a person, place, or thing.

                                                          Vitruvian Man (c. 1492) by Leonardo da Vinci


    Vanishing points also play a crucial role in artworks with the goal of representing an accurate depiction of reality. "It’s often possible to tell by looking that a drawing is in true one-point perspective. In this case it may be easy to find the exact viewing position for the viewer’s eye" (Lesson 3). Aspects of art like vanishing points and proportions require a lot of mathematical thinking. Many people do not realize how crucial math is to art. Sometimes I think even artists are not aware of when they are using math while they are creating their pieces. 

Figure 5 from Lesson 3: Vanishing Points and Looking at Art





 Facial Proportions (2013) by Benjamin Clancy






Works Cited 


Abbott, Edwin Abbott, 1838-1926. Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Dover Publications, 19531952.

 

Lesson 3: Vanishing Points and Looking at Art - Cs.ucf.edu. https://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf. 

 

Vesna, Victoria. " Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Youtube. 9 Apr. 2012, UCLA, Los Angeles, California. https://youtu.be/mMmq5B1LKDg



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