infinite Beauty - Faculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen

22
sPeCial
origin - universiteit leiden
Interestingly, the anatomical theatre of Leiden was
built after the late medieval ages. The medieval ages
are not acknowledged for their physical care and beauty.
Fascinatingly, “Perfect beauty was in the old days just
as unreachable as it is nowadays” as is phrased by
Karine van ‘t Land, who is a junior scientist studying
the history of medieval medicine. Therefore, the anatomy
of the human body was drawn in an idealistic
manner without any imperfections and according to
the principles of beauty during that frame of time.
Nowadays, we will look
at these drawings as if
they are not realistic
and not true-to-nature
at all, comparing this to
the present day available
knowledge and information.
However, how
can we judge objectively
in this point of time if these late medieval age images
were not realistic?
Today, we look towards old illustrations as pieces of
art. We are presenting these illustrations to observers
through exhibitions and they serve in the first place to
amaze and interest the observer. In the meantime, the
observer is trying to see through the meaning and the
reality of the image. The question is whether these observers
are trying to understand the content reality of
the image or are they just seeing what they want to see,
while looking for their own reality in the image? Thus,
we recognise our own reality in the observation of the
environment, and this is in essence the phenomenon
called ‘art’. Moreover, this implies that modern day
images exhibited anywhere to a public are essentially
art as all the observers create their own reality when
trying to interpret the illustration.
However, these ten images cannot be observed in full
and show only a piece
of the complete item.
Therefore these items
could become even
more like art and create
their own reality,
which often calls for
emotions and a feeling
of beauty in the observer.
The exquisiteness of these images is in harmony
with science as science is a reconnoitring expedition
towards novel knowledge of the reality on the basis of
affirming facts. To address this issue, it is fair to assume
that art and science synchronise by the fact that
both disciplines converge towards recreating reality,
yet each from a different angle.
The ten items are part of the new exhibition of Museum
Booijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, for which
scientists in Natural Sciences were asked to deliver sci-
’art and science synchronise by
the fact that both disciplines converge
towards creating reality, yet from
a different angle’