List of mathematical artists

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Broken lances lying along perspective lines in Paolo Uccello's The Battle of San Romano, 1438 San Romano Battle (Paolo Uccello, London) 01.jpg
Broken lances lying along perspective lines in Paolo Uccello's The Battle of San Romano, 1438
Small stellated dodecahedron, from De divina proportione by Luca Pacioli, woodcut by Leonardo da Vinci. Venice, 1509 Stellated Dodecahedron Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci 1509.jpg
Small stellated dodecahedron, from De divina proportione by Luca Pacioli, woodcut by Leonardo da Vinci. Venice, 1509
Albrecht Durer's 1514 engraving Melencolia, with a truncated triangular trapezohedron and a magic square Albrecht Durer - Melencolia I - Google Art Project (427760).jpg
Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving Melencolia, with a truncated triangular trapezohedron and a magic square
Rencontre dans la porte tournante by Man Ray, 1922, with helix Man Ray, Rencontre dans la porte tournante.jpg
Rencontre dans la porte tournante by Man Ray, 1922, with helix
Four-dimensional geometry in Painting 2006-7 by Tony Robbin Tony Robbin artwork.JPG
Four-dimensional geometry in Painting 2006-7 by Tony Robbin
Quintrino by Bathsheba Grossman, 2007, a sculpture with dodecahedral symmetry Bathsheba Grossman geometric art.jpg
Quintrino by Bathsheba Grossman, 2007, a sculpture with dodecahedral symmetry
Heart by Hamid Naderi Yeganeh, 2014, using a family of trigonometric equations Heart by Hamid Naderi Yeganeh.jpg
Heart by Hamid Naderi Yeganeh, 2014, using a family of trigonometric equations
"Angel V" of Mikolaj Jakub Kosmalski - A cubic curve formed on a finite set of points generated by a parametric formula using trigonometric functions and operations on complex numbers Mikolaj Kosmalski Aniol V.jpg
"Angel V" of Mikołaj Jakub Kosmalski - A cubic curve formed on a finite set of points generated by a parametric formula using trigonometric functions and operations on complex numbers

This is a list of artists who actively explored mathematics in their artworks. [3] Art forms practised by these artists include painting, sculpture, architecture, textiles and origami.

Contents

Some artists such as Piero della Francesca and Luca Pacioli went so far as to write books on mathematics in art. Della Francesca wrote books on solid geometry and the emerging field of perspective, including De Prospectiva Pingendi (On Perspective for Painting), Trattato d’Abaco (Abacus Treatise), and De corporibus regularibus (Regular Solids), [4] [5] [6] while Pacioli wrote De divina proportione (On Divine Proportion), with illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci, at the end of the fifteenth century. [7]

Merely making accepted use of some aspect of mathematics such as perspective does not qualify an artist for admission to this list.

The term "fine art" is used conventionally to cover the output of artists who produce a combination of paintings, drawings and sculptures.

List

Mathematical artists
ArtistDatesArtformContribution to mathematical art
Calatrava, Santiago 1951–ArchitectureMathematically-based architecture [3] [8]
Della Francesca, Piero 1420–1492Fine artMathematical principles of perspective in art; [9] his books include De prospectiva pingendi (On perspective for painting), Trattato d’Abaco (Abacus treatise), and De corporibus regularibus (Regular solids)
Demaine, Erik and Martin 1981–Origami"Computational origami": mathematical curved surfaces in self-folding paper sculptures [10] [11] [12]
Dietz, Ada 1882–1950Textiles Weaving patterns based on the expansion of multivariate polynomials [13]
Draves, Scott 1968–Digital artVideo art, VJing [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Dürer, Albrecht 1471–1528Fine artMathematical theory of proportion [19] [20]
Ernest, John 1922–1994Fine artUse of group theory, self-replicating shapes in art [21] [22]
Escher, M. C. 1898–1972Fine artExploration of tessellations, hyperbolic geometry, assisted by the geometer H. S. M. Coxeter [19] [23]
Farmanfarmaian, Monir 1922–2019Fine artGeometric constructions exploring the infinite, especially mirror mosaics [24]
Ferguson, Helaman 1940–Digital art Algorist, Digital artist [3]
Forakis, Peter 1927–2009SculpturePioneer of geometric forms in sculpture [25] [26]
Grossman, Bathsheba 1966–Sculpture Sculpture based on mathematical structures [27] [28]
Hart, George W. 1955–Sculpture Sculptures of 3-dimensional tessellations (lattices) [3] [29] [30]
Radoslav Rochallyi 1980–Fine artEquations-inspired mathematical visual art including mathematical structures. [31] [32]
Hill, Anthony 1930–Fine artGeometric abstraction in Constructivist art [33] [34]
Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519Fine artMathematically-inspired proportion, including golden ratio (used as golden rectangles) [19] [35]
Longhurst, Robert 1949–SculptureSculptures of minimal surfaces, saddle surfaces, and other mathematical concepts [36]
Man Ray 1890–1976Fine artPhotographs and paintings of mathematical models in Dada and Surrealist art [37]
Naderi Yeganeh, Hamid 1990–Fine artExploration of tessellations (resembling rep-tiles) [38] [39]
Pacioli, Luca 1447–1517Fine art Polyhedra (e.g. rhombicuboctahedron) in Renaissance art; [19] [40] proportion, in his book De divina proportione
Perry, Charles O. 1929–2011SculptureMathematically-inspired sculpture [3] [41] [42]
Robbin, Tony 1943–Fine artPainting, sculpture and computer visualizations of four-dimensional geometry [43]
Saiers, Nelson 2014–Fine artMathematical concepts (toposes, Brown representability, Euler's identity, etc) play a central role in his artwork. [44] [45] [46]
Séquin, Carlo 1941–Digital art computer graphics, geometric modelling, and sculpture [47] [48] [49]
Sugimoto, Hiroshi 1948–Photography,
sculpture
Photography and sculptures of mathematical models, [50] inspired by the work of Man Ray [51] and Marcel Duchamp [52] [53]
Taimina, Daina 1954–Textiles Crochets of hyperbolic space [54]
Thorsteinn, Einar 1942–2015ArchitectureMathematically-inspired sculpture and architecture with polyhedral, spherical shapes and tensile structures [55] [56]
Uccello, Paolo 1397–1475Fine artInnovative use of perspective grid, objects as mathematical solids (e.g. lances as cones) [57] [58]
Kosmalski, Mikołaj Jakub1986Digital artExploration of spreadsheet software capabilities (OO Calc and MS Excel), generation of finite sets of points by parametric formulas, connecting these points by curved (usually cubic) and broken lines. [59]
Verhoeff, Jacobus 1927–2018SculptureEscher-inspired mathematical sculptures such as lattice configurations and fractal formations [3] [60]
Widmark, Anduriel1987–SculptureGeometric glass sculpture using tetrastix, and knot theory [61] [62]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luca Pacioli</span> Italian mathematician and cleric

Fra. Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and an early contributor to the field now known as accounting. He is referred to as the father of accounting and bookkeeping and he was the first person to publish a work on the double-entry system of book-keeping on the continent. He was also called Luca di Borgo after his birthplace, Borgo Sansepolcro, Tuscany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyhedron</span> 3D shape with flat faces, straight edges and sharp corners

In geometry, a polyhedron is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truncated icosahedron</span> Archimedean solid

In geometry, the truncated icosahedron is an Archimedean solid, one of 13 convex isogonal nonprismatic solids whose 32 faces are two or more types of regular polygons. It is the only one of these shapes that does not contain triangles or squares. In general usage, the degree of truncation is assumed to be uniform unless specified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piero della Francesca</span> Italian painter

Piero della Francesca was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perspective (graphical)</span> Form of graphical projection where the projection lines converge to one or more points

Linear or point-projection perspective is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye. Perspective drawing is useful for representing a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional medium, like paper.

<i>Vitruvian Man</i> Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1490

The Vitruvian Man is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1490. Inspired by the writings of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in both a circle and square. It was described by the art historian Carmen C. Bambach as "justly ranked among the all-time iconic images of Western civilization". Although not the only known drawing of a man inspired by the writings of Vitruvius, the work is a unique synthesis of artistic and scientific ideals and often considered an archetypal representation of the High Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sansepolcro</span> Comune in Tuscany, Italy

Sansepolcro, formerly Borgo Santo Sepolcro, is a town and comune founded in the 11th century, located in the Italian Province of Arezzo in the eastern part of the region of Tuscany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flexible polyhedron</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compound of three cubes</span> Polyhedral compound

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<i>Divina proportione</i> Book on proportions by Luca Pacioli, illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci

Divina proportione, later also called De divina proportione is a book on mathematics written by Luca Pacioli and illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, completed by February 9th, 1498 in Milan and first printed in 1509. Its subject was mathematical proportions and their applications to geometry, to visual art through perspective, and to architecture. The clarity of the written material and Leonardo's excellent diagrams helped the book to achieve an impact beyond mathematical circles, popularizing contemporary geometric concepts and images.

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<i>De prospectiva pingendi</i>

De prospectiva pingendi is the earliest and only pre-1500 Renaissance treatise solely devoted to the subject of perspective. It was written by the Italian master Piero della Francesca in the mid-1470s to 1480s, and possibly by about 1474. Despite its Latin title, the opus is written in Italian.

<i>Portrait of Luca Pacioli</i> Painting by Jacopo de Barbari

The Portrait of Luca Pacioli is a painting attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Jacopo de' Barbari, dating to around 1500 and housed in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples, southern Italy. The painting portrays the Renaissance mathematician Luca Pacioli and may have been painted by his collaborator Leonardo da Vinci. The person on the right has not been identified conclusively, but could be the German painter Albrecht Dürer, whom Barbari met between 1495 and 1500.

<i>Summa de arithmetica</i> Renaissance mathematics textbook

Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita is a book on mathematics written by Luca Pacioli and first published in 1494. It contains a comprehensive summary of Renaissance mathematics, including practical arithmetic, basic algebra, basic geometry and accounting, written for use as a textbook and reference work.

<i>Rhythm of Structure</i> Art exhibition series

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<i>The Nativity</i> (Piero della Francesca) Painting by Piero della Francesca

The Nativity is an oil painting by Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca, dated to 1470–75. The painting depicts a scene from the birth of Jesus, and is one of the latest surviving paintings made by the artist before his death in 1492. Held by the National Gallery in London, it measures 124.4 cm × 122.6 cm. It is a popular image on Christmas cards.

<i>Perspectiva corporum regularium</i> 1568 book on polyhedra by Wenzel Jamnitzer

Perspectiva corporum regularium is a book of perspective drawings of polyhedra by German Renaissance goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer, with engravings by Jost Amman, published in 1568.

<i>De quinque corporibus regularibus</i> 15th century book on polyhedra

De quinque corporibus regularibus is a book on the geometry of polyhedra written in the 1480s or early 1490s by Italian painter and mathematician Piero della Francesca. It is a manuscript, in the Latin language; its title means [the little book] on the five regular solids. It is one of three books known to have been written by della Francesca.

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