Re-viewing the Connection Between Science and Art

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Noted artist David Hockney recently observed that certain drawings and paintings from as early as the Renaissance seemed almost “photographic” in detail. After extensively investigating Western art of the past 1,000 years, he made the revolutionary claim that artists even of the prominence of Jan van Eyck and Giovanni Bellini must have used optical aids nearly 200 years before scientists took up their study.

Charles Falco, professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona, will discuss this evidence and its implications for the history of science and art in a talk on “The Science of Optics, the History of Art” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21, in Giffels Auditorium. A reception will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

In an unusual and productive collaboration between an artist and a scientist, Hockney and Falco have uncovered a wealth of optical evidence that optical instruments were in use by artists, rather than scientists, nearly 200 years earlier than commonly thought possible. The use of optics accounts for the remarkable transformation in the realism of portraits that occurred early in the 15th century.

“However, many art historians insisted there was no supporting evidence for such a remarkable assertion,” said Falco. “In this talk I show a wealth of optical evidence for Hockney’s claim. I also discuss the imaging properties of the mirror lens, or concave mirror, and some of the implications this work has for the history of science as well as the history of art.”

Falco is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, has published more than 250 scientific manuscripts, co-edited two books and has seven U.S. patents, most of which are related to various physical properties of thin film materials. In addition to his scientific research, in 1998 he was co-recipient of an award from the AICA for his work as co-curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum’s “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibition. With over 2 million visitors thus far in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Bilbao, Spain, it is the most successful exhibition of industrial design ever assembled, and is the fifth most attended museum exhibition of any kind.

More recently, his collaboration with Hockney has resulted in widespread coverage in the popular media, including an hour-long BBC special and a segment on “60 Minutes,” and numerous invitations to present their discoveries at academic conferences around the world.

Falco’s visit is being sponsored by the departments of art and physics in Fulbright College and the Honors College. To learn more about Falco’s research, go to http://www.optics.arizona.edu/ssd/FAQ.html