The perfect encounter

Since the dawn of time, humanity has sought answers to the secrets of the universe through its most mystical channels: the charm of art and the discovery of science. Together, their overlap creates a pathway to understanding what captivates us across fields, holding the ultimate key to truly understanding the power of beauty. By dazzling with aesthetics and educating with science, these mysteries can truly be revealed. Those who are curious and passionate can find joy in both subjects; through calculation and expression, both schools of thoughts experiment, then align to provide us with the foundation to illuminate what has thus far remained a mystery. Art is the way we display that newfound knowledge.

Since Ancient Greece, the linguistic overlap between technique and technology has dictated the evolution of art as a tool: Technê τέχνη is translated both as art or craft and as the root of “technology”. The linguistic subtlety mirrored the development of art as a skill, as pottery, sculpture, and other artisanal building blocks of pigment and color theory, which all paved the way for antiquity’s masterpieces. As art also became two-dimensional, the significance of linear and geometric formulas leveraged science for paintings, drawings, and the art of modernity.

he Renaissance was defined by an all-encompassing curiosity. In 15th-century Europe, discovery and creativity went hand-in-hand as intellectuals strove to develop answers to questions in medicine and music, art and arithmetic. In order to find these solutions, artistic intuition paired with observational mastery. This unification of thought was a guiding force during this pivotal era and served to set the stage for critical thinking throughout history.

To this end, art has always been influenced by science. Both the science and art of today began in the Renaissance, culminating with Leonardo da Vinci’s insatiable quest to challenge the universe’s largest, unanswerable questions. A keen observer of the world around him, he applied this fascination to the works he created. As Walter Isaacson’s authoritative biography explained, his extraordinary curiosity made science his true passion. Around gravity and human nature, it was love affair bordering on obsession. He gathered copious notes on the motions and sounds of machines and mammals, even the inner-workings of childbirth, and discovered breakthroughs in aviation, music, and medicine that would not be developed for centuries to come, even predating Galileo by more than a century. Da Vinci was constantly experimenting and theorising, looking for patterns in the rhythm of life.

This interconnectedness across art, science, and inevitably, humanity  allowed his portraits to truly capture the essence of his models, seeing the world within the individual. His ever-inquisitive mind led him to partner with mathematician Luca Pacioli for their patron Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan. An early accountant and a frontrunner in what is now known as double-entry bookkeeping, Pacioli taught Leonardo da Vinci mathematics, and had a significant impact in the artist’s understanding of proportion and symmetry. This partnership resulted in Divina Proportione (the Divine Proportion), a book developing the idea of perfect proportions in art through scientific drawings and sketches designed by da Vinci himself.

This duplicity drives viewers to delight in his work, and is synonymous with the Renaissance value of curiosity. Because he thought differently and saw the connivance between art and science, his genius continues to be esteemed and echoed into modern day.

Cross-categorical thought processes fostered in the Renaissance were pushed forward into modernity, eventually leading to the late 19th century’s groundbreaking accessibility in art. With the developments of chemistry, artists had access to new materials on daily basis, opening a whole new world of opportunities to experimentation with different techniques. At the same time, scientists tried to explain just about everything with mathematical formulas. For a while, it looked like everything would become explainable, including people’s feelings when exposed to art.

La Prairie