FYSEMR 51X: Changing Perspectives: the Science of Optics in the Visual Arts

Renaissance artists began to create stunningly realistic representations of their world. Paintings started to resemble photographs, suggesting that artists had solved technical problems that escaped their forebears. Our brains effortlessly deduce three-dimensional scenes from two-dimensional images. But faithfully transferring spatial information to a flat canvas -- a sense of depth, surface and shadow, geometrical accuracy -- is hard to do. We will discuss how artists from van Eyck to Vermeer to Ingres to modern artists might have used science to make art. We will ask how devices like pinhole cameras, mirrors, and lenses might help artists see more deeply and create images more faithfully. We will perform science experiments with our own hands to appreciate how optical devices might be useful to artists. We will try to use devices to create our own artwork. We will use online platforms to look closely at masterpieces around the world, using Zoom to virtually travel to distant museums and meet with their curators. We will meet artists and scientists, in person and virtually, who think about art and optics from different perspectives. Our seminar is a synthesis of art history, art making, and science.