Mathematics in the Visual Arts

Ruth Scheps, Marie-Christine Maurel

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781786306814
• eBook ISBN: 9781119802082
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Art and science are not separate universes. This book explores this claim by showing how mathematics, geometry and numerical approaches contribute to the construction of works of art. This applies not only to modern visual artists but also to important artists of the past. To illustrate this, this book studies Leonardo da Vinci, who was both an engineer and a painter, and whose paintings can be perfectly modeled using simple geometric curves. The world gains intelligibility through elegant mathematical frameworks – from the projective spaces of painting to the most complex phase spaces of theoretical physics. 

A living example of this interdisciplinarity would be the sculptures of Jean Letourneur, a specialist in both chaos sciences and carving, as evidenced in his stonework. This book also exemplifies the geometry and life of forms through contemporary works of art – including fractal art – which have never before been represented in this type of work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title page
• Copyright
• Introduction
• 1 Infinity of God and Space of Men in Painting, Conditions of Possibility for the Scientific Revolution
• 2 Geometry and the Life of Forms
• 3 Among the Trees: Iterating Geneses of Forms, in Art and Nature
• 4 The Passion of Flight: From Leonardo da Vinci to Jean Letourneur
• 5 Sculptor of Fluid Movement
• 6 Internal Geometry of “Salvator Mundi” (The “Cook Version”, Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci)
• 7 Internal Geometry of a Night Scene by Georges de La Tour: “The Apparition of the Angel to St. Joseph”
• 8 Emergilience, an Art Research Project
• List of Authors
• Index
• End User License Agreement