Week 2

Week 2 Blog 

http://www.greece-athens.com/page.php?page_id=2

The focus of this week’s materials was to demonstrate how math has influenced both art and science.  It was interesting to see during professor’s lectures how great works of art and architecture were heavily influenced by mathematics.  The golden ratio in particular has had a large influence on many different bodies of work throughout time.  In lecture professor broke down how many buildings in Ancient Greece were planned and constructed with the golden ratio.  The Parthenon is on specific example of Ancient Greek architecture that was created using the golden ratio.  Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa is another work that incorporated the golden ratio into its structure.  It is fascinating how two things as different as the Pantheon and the Mona Lisa are linked together by mathematics.  Both of these historic items have stood the test of time.  I wouldn’t have ever put the Parthenon and the Mona Lisa in the same category but they do have one common factor: mathematics.  One of the main goals of this class is to close the divide between art and science.  By learning how the golden ratio influenced the creation of these two works one can see that these two subjects do indeed belong together.

http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396

In this weeks’s lecture professor told us about Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca.  He is now known for his great works of art but he also studied geometry and arithmetic.  Francesca believed that there were three aspects to painting: drawing, proportion and coloring.  When thinking of painting drawing and color come to my mind first as a top priority, proportion does not.  After the breakdown of lecture this week I see now how important proportion is to painting in order to make a work as symmetric and real life as possible.  When someone sits down to paint something it is more than just simply putting a brush to a canvas.  Painting is also a mathematical process.  Piet Mondrian’s works are a great example of this.  When I first looked at his paintings with no background knowledge I thought they were just abstract pieces created with spontaneous inspiration.  I now know that this is not the case.  Mondrian believed in using simple geometric shapes and primary colors to express reality and nature.  Many great artists throughout history were more than just artists.  They also had a great love for math and science. Without mathematics all of the great works we were shown this week could not have been created.

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/mondrian-art/

Works Cited:

"Daina Taimina." Daina Taimina. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. http://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/daina_taimina.php

"Nathan Selikoff | Fine Artist Playing with Interactivity, Math, Code." Nathan Selikoff. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. http://nathanselikoff.com

"Piero Della Francesca." Piero Della Francesca. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/piero-della-francesca

"Piet Mondrian Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works." The Art Story. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. http://www.theartstory.org/artist-mondrian-piet.htm

"The Institute For Figuring // Where the Wild Things Are." The Institute For Figuring // Where the Wild Things Are. Web. 11. Apr.2016. http://www.theiff.org/publications/cab21-gessler.html