Seen Unseen: Art, Science, and Intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble Telescope

by Martin Kemp

Overview

Seen | Unseen is a deep, richly illustrated, and erudite analysis of the interconnections between science and the visual arts. Martin Kemp explores the responses of artists, scientists, and their instruments, to the world—ranging from early representations of perspective, to pinhole cameras, particle accelerators and the Hubble telescope.

From Leonardo, Durer, and the inventors of photography to contemporary sculptors, and from Galileo and Darwin to Stephen J. Gould, Kemp considers the way in which scientists and artists have perceived the world and responded to its patterns, and sees common "structural intuitions" reflected in their work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199295722
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	10/12/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 6.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Martin Kemp is Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford. He is perhaps best known as an expert in Renaissance art, and especially the work of Leonardo. Kemp himself studied both history of art and the natural sciences at Cambridge, and is as sure-footed in his treatment of the scientific context of imagery as he is in scholarly history of art. Among his books is the recent and highly successful Leonardo published by OUP.

Table of Contents

Journey into Space
Looking into the box
The persistent box
Lesser and Greater Worlds
The art of analogy: Leonardo and Palissy
The art of interaction: Robert Thornton and the Romantic era.
Wholes and parts
Discerning Designs
Natural geometries
Growth and form
Out of our Hands
The camera before photography
'The faithful record'
Invisible worlds
Looking Backwards and Forewords: a speculative conclusion.
Further reading

Editorial Reviews

"This well-illustrated book will appeal to anyone interested in form and perspective in the visual arts,as well as to science readers interested in perception and aesthetic sense."—Chemistry World

From the Publisher