Artistic Gravity by Anubhav Chandla

For my second event of the quarter, I attended the online event titled "Leonardo da Vinci on Visualizing the Forces of Nature: Gravity" discussed by many intellectuals such as Professor Vesna, Claire Farago, and Matthew Landrus. This event was quite intriguing because I could physically visualize Leonardo Da Vinci’s artistic viewpoint on characterizing the physical world around him. The various art pieces and personal sketches that Da Vinci had reminded me of the discussions we had previously in the quarter about art and mathematics as a constantly intertwined relationship. It was amazing to see that Leonardo was able to characterize physical concepts such as gravity, magnetic fields, and geological structures based on observational skill and its relation to artistic expression. (Proof of attendance at the end)

Leonardo Da Vinci draws “A Bird in Flight”

One piece of art that stuck out to me was Da Vinci’s depiction of “A Bird in Flight” because not only does it artistically characterize the natural behaviors of birds, but as discussed in the event, it also revealed the first instances of discussing Earth’s magnetic field and gravitational pull. Personally, I found this distinction to be quite eye-opening as it revealed many of Henderson’s claims of math being engrained in art (Henderson 206). In the artwork above, Leonardo intertwined both the field of mathematics and art as he creatively expresses the natural world around him through a nuanced vision of how “physical flight” takes place on Earth.

Another example of the intertwining of art and math was Leonardo Da Vinci’s depiction of a stormy night through the Deluge. I found this art piece to be quite interesting because while it depicts Da Vinci’s artistic view of a stormy night, it also further reifies the developing world around him in a scientific manner. While Da Vinci used the real world as his artistic canvas, in some cases it was also one of the first cases of depicting weather in the geological patterns we see today, further showing the relationship between art, science, and mathematics. This art piece also revealed Da Vinci’s interest in meteorology and his ability to accurately depict and describe weather (Simons 3).

Final Thoughts 

Overall, I would definitely recommend this exhibit because it allowed me to better appreciate the impact of art and its intersectionality with the physical and metaphysical world. Again, I was also able to connect this with our many discussions on the melding of “two worlds” or “cultures” and how art is intertwined into many aspects of everyday life (Vesna 124).

Proof of Attendance

Bibliography

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–10. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1575193. Accessed 20 May 2023.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonard , vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–25. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014. Accessed 29 Apr. 2023.

Simons, Paul. “Weather Eye: The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci.” The Times & The Sunday Times: Breaking News & Today’s Latest Headlines, 10 Nov. 2011, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/weather-eye-the-genius-of-leonardo-da-vinci-knhrc0xmqf5.