Art and Science Part 1
Art and Science Part 1
Art and Science Part 1
Vol:12, p.54, 1989 Current Contents, #8, p.1-10, February 20, 1989
CurremtComments@
EUGENE GARFIELD
INSTITUTE
FOR SCIENTIFIC
lNFORMATl
ON@
3501 MA~KET
ST PHILADELPHIA
PA 191Cd
Number 8
Ilk two-part essay examines relationships between the worlds of art and science. Part 1 considers
various theoretical and historical connections between the two spheres, Photography and other technological developments and their contributions to art are also discussed, as are medical and scientific
illustration. The second part will examine various ways in which science and technology have been
applied in the service of art.
The interaction between the worlds of wience and the humanities, as our readers
know, has been a recurring theme in Curberent Contentsm. The many comections
tween
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Historical Connections
Prehistoric cave paintings, as noted above,
represent what may be the first merging of
art and science. In the many centuries since,
that
relationship has developed. Science historian Alistair C. Crombie, Trinity College,
Oxford, UK (now retired), traces the connections Mween art and science in the modem world. Writing in a 1986 issue of the
journal DaeaWus devoted entirely to art and
science, Crombie discusses the influence of
ancient Greece and its moral and intellectual commitments. 16 These included a
mathematically and causally structured science of nature, a morally structured drama,
and painting and music each structured to
make their aesthetic or dramatic effects.
The rational tradition that was manifest in
Greek science and art continued into the
Renaissance, in a style that Crombie refers
to as experimentally controlled postulation. lc
The Renaissance gave us some of the
more notable figures in the histosy of art and
sciencemost notably, Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519). His Nofebooks, embracing art,
architecture, philosophy, astronomy, engineering, and a variety of other physical and
natural sciences, provide powerful evidence
of the breadth of Leonardos interests and
achievements. 17 His efforts as an artist
were informed by extensive sdf-training in
science, including the dissection of human
bcxiies. As historian Dhste Kirkpatrick
notes, Leonardo believed that it was necessary to master the bodys depths to accurately portray its surfaces. Such anatomical
drawings as Principal Organs and Arterial
Systems of the Femaie Body, says Kkkpatrick, are remarkable not only for their artistic technique and composition, but for
their precision and accuracy in recording the
structure of the human body. 1S
Another man of the Renaissance whose
career combined achievements in art and science was Galileo (1564-1642). As Crombie
notes, Galileo lived from Michelangelos
death to Isaac Newtons birth, thus marking the transition between two great European intellectual movements .. .from the
world of the rational constructive artist to
that of the rational experimental scientist. 16Trained in music and in perspective
drawing, Galileo also possessed expertise in
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