The Getty Center

On the Steps Outside of the Getty Museum!

Me, at Getty Center

            Visiting the Getty Center this morning was a wonderful experience, and I encountered many exhibits there that pertained to biotechnology, medicine, and science. Many of the displays did not allow photography, however, so I spent some time looking through the paintings and sculptures that did allow photography, and I remembered way back to the beginning of our class—the lectures about math and art and medicine and art. As I browsed through the paintings and looked a little closer, I realized that elements of science really are found in all types of art. 

The Miraculous Communion of Saint Catherine
of Siena, c.1513-15

            Most of the paintings I saw seemed to have certain things in common, especially as the paintings became more modern. They all followed a liner perspective that helped convey a more 3-dimensional scene on the flat canvas. Many also had distinctive vanishing points, where you could tell that the artist tried to mathematically set up the characters in a painting so that where and what they were looking at seemed more realistic. On one of the paintings I found, the vanishing points were even explicitly drawn out, like in the painting below, so that the eye follows the direct path that the artist intended.

Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving
the Stigmata c.1513-15, with obvious vanishing point

            Another theme that I noticed is that so many of the paintings and sculptures in the museum feature the naked body. I don’t think that this means that ancient art was perverted, but rather that artists, once they had learned how to correctly depict muscles and ligaments, were excited to show off their mastery in representing the human body. This, layered with the above mentioned techniques for established a vanishing point and incorporating liner perspective, made for very realistic and impressive works of art.

A Young Girl Defending Herself against Eros, c.1880

          We have learned a lot about how art and science are related through our weekly lectures, but it was empowering to be able to apply what I have learned when going out and seeing art in these museums in the real world, on my own time. I think it’s a testament to how much I have learned to be able to identify these techniques in the artwork that I am exposed to from this point forward. I am truly glad to have taken this class, and I am excited to see the direction that the intersection of art and science will take in the future of artistic creation and expression.