The Science of Art and the Art of Science

Leonardo da Vinci, centuries ahead of his time in ideas and arguably the greatest artist/scientist this world has ever seen, died in 1519 at the age of 67. He famously said, “to develop a complete mind, study the science of art and the art of science.” Even Einstein opined that art and science are branches of the same tree. Both art and science involve problem solving skills and both artists and scientists describe their greatest aim as the pursuit of truth. That pursuit begins with intense observation.

In mid 1500s Antwerp, then the culturally flourishing global trade and financial center of Europe, an artist named Joris Hoefnagel was inspired by the great Albrecht Durer who not only gave us the “Praying Hands” but also the natural science illustrations of “The Hare” and “The Stag Beetle.” Painting over decades, Hoefnagel created four separate books, divided into the four basic elements of air, earth, fire, and water, filled with over 300 watercolor miniatures of plants, birds, animals, and insects that are still considered a benchmark for natural science illustrators today.

Theories of linear perspective enabling the illusion of depth on flat paper or canvas were first written down in 1435 by the architect, painter, and scientist Leon Baptista Alberti.

The study of light has perplexed painters and scientists since the beginning of time. From the sun’s depictions by earliest civilizations to the halo around the heads of saints in the Middle Ages, theories progressed to the camera obscura, the earliest type of projector. Da Vinci’s theories and use of sfumato, or blurred edges in his paintings, was actually one of the scientific ideas borrowed by the Impressionists whose understanding of color was made possible by the studies of a scientist attempting to intensify the saturation of dyes for tapestries!

The pursuit of motion in art, which we take for granted in our current culture of cinematography and videography, was predated in 1832 by two scientists who separately studied the persistence of vision and who separately invented “moving pictures.” In Brussels, one built a phenakistiscope and in Vienna, a like-minded fellow developed his stroboscope. Painters created “painted motion” in a movement called “Futurism” in the early twentieth century.

Then there's the science of harmonic divisibility and the Golden Section. Leonardo wrote about it. The Greeks built their temples with it. Andrew Wyeth composed almost all his major works with it. It's all through nature from plants to the human body. It’s out in space where we see the Golden Spiral in nebulae and here on earth at the beach in seashells. Sunflowers have a disc in their center with a spiral pattern. Count them! There are 42 spirals to the left, 55 spirals turning right, and those two numbers are next to each other in the Fibonacci series. Daisies… pineapples… pinecones… trees… all have Fibonacci series numbers! It makes my head spin!

From my fellow artist April Eckert, who is featured in this month's cover story, I have actually acquired some respect for spiders, those creepy, crawly, leggy, scary things I previously loathed! My art students who study high school science with April adore her. Sierra says, “She enhanced my longtime love of biology.” Cooper claims she is the best bio teacher ever, and Grace adds that “Mrs. Eckert teaches in a unique and fun way!” She certainly does! April and her science classes held a baby shower for the 136 baby wolf spiders that hatched in her classroom! (Note: They were all contained. And all were named.) Inspired by April, I have actually painted a spider’s portrait. Tiffany is April’s pet Carolina wolf spider, one of the largest true spiders in North America, yet relatively small by tarantula standards. April claims that if I go out into my yard InSide the Back Mountain at night with a flashlight, I will see their glowing eyes. Hah! I have not ventured forth. 

In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson, creator of “Far Side,” described the pattern of spikes on the tail of the stegosaurus dinosaur as a “thagomizer.” It was a joke, but paleontologists loved it and adopted that cartoon name into their official lexicon! 

My favorite contemporary artist is James Gurney–painter, illustrator, writer, educator, dabbler in engineering inventions, and creator of Dinotopia, a fantasy world where people and dinosaurs live together in peace and order. When a new carnivorous dinosaur was discovered in Portugal in 2014, it was named Torvosaurus gurneyi in honor of the artist who has done so much to further our appreciation of dinosaurs! 

Isn't it amazing how art and science constantly intertwine?

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This article originally appeared in the October 2025 publication of InSide the Back Mountain.