Slicing a Cone for Art and Science

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), master painter and printmaker of the German Renaissance, never thought of himself as a mathematician. Yet he used geometry to uncover nature’s hidden formulas for beauty. His efforts influenced renowned mathematicians, including Gerolamo Cardano and Niccolo Tartaglia, as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Best Writing on Mathematics 2013 Vol. 4; pp. 90 - 108
Main Author Silver, Daniel S
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Princeton University Press 19.01.2014
Subjects
Applied sciences
Art history
Art periods
Arts
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Celestial mechanics
Conic sections
Ellipses
Engineering
Euclidean geometry
Geometric planes
Geometric shapes
Geometry
Hyperbolas
Keplerian orbits
MATHEMATICS
Mirrors
Optical engineering
Optical equipment
Orbital motion
Orbits
Parabolas
Parabolic reflectors
Physical sciences
Plane geometry
Popular science
Pure mathematics
Reflectors
Renaissance art
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Summary:Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), master painter and printmaker of the German Renaissance, never thought of himself as a mathematician. Yet he used geometry to uncover nature’s hidden formulas for beauty. His efforts influenced renowned mathematicians, including Gerolamo Cardano and Niccolo Tartaglia, as well as famous scientists such as Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. We praise Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance figures for embracing art and science as a unity. But for artists such as Leonardo and Dürer, there was little science to embrace. Efforts to draw or paint directly from nature required an understanding of physiology and optics that
ISBN:9780691160412
0691160414
DOI:10.1515/9781400847990-012