Art and the Scientific Revolution

Art and science have long been presumed to be polar opposites, the one fueled by fantasy and creativity and the other by the mathematics and natural laws that are viewed as the other end of the spectrum. This is an incomplete and inaccurate perception, however. Art and science are, in fact, integrally connected, and their premises are closely allied. The mathematical systems that science is based on are as much a part of art as of science, although art is not often analyzed mathematically. The concept of symmetry a basic component to be achieved or defiantly flouted in art can be expressed mathematically in terms of the Fibonacci series of numbers. Linear perspective is nothing more than a mathematical system for making the flat artist's canvas look three-dimensional. The styles of art from realism to impressionism merely represent varying degrees of mathematical precision in depicting the subject realistically. Ancient artists dissected cadavers to understand how the joints work, and what bones and sinews underlie the surface of the skin to form the limbs and torso. The phenomenon we identify as "artistic talent" is most likely just an innate ability to "eyeball" the mathematical constructs that good art is built on.

It is not a great leap, therefore, to see how art was fundamentally connected to the Scientific Revolution. The same artist that studied bones, muscles, and joints to learn how the human body functi

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nd rods that were purported to be a calculating machine capable of performing additions. IBM sponsored the construction of a replica based on these drawings" (9, Fig. 6). Many of da Vinci's land and water machines could be seen as fitting neatly into the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. The auto-feed hydraulic saw is one such machine that could easily become part of a manufacturing process (Fig. 7). A salient characteristic of da Vinci's many drawings and inventions is that their design is predicated on an understanding of nature and its scientific forces, and the devices worked in conjunction with nature. Prior to da Vinci's time, mechanics were developed only in a very limited way due to their design being fundamentally opposed to the forces of nature rather than cooperating with them. "One reason why mechanics played a minor r(le in the tradition of science until the sixteenth century was perhaps just this fact that so much mechanical ingenuity was directed towards reversing the natural order--it did not contribute to the understanding of nature, but violated it" (4, p. 18). Da Vinci, however, was fascinated by nature, and his designs capitalized on natural forces and principles. "Nature is the source of all true kn

Category: Arts - A