The classic model is used to examine the ideas of an artist or group of artists to see how scientific knowledge was adopted or adapted for the purpose of making works of art. The most firmly established area for this kind of research is the phase of naturalism in European art from the Renaissance to the 19th century, during which the aims of empirical science were widely seen as providing a foundation for artists’ understanding of the appearance and representation of nature. Investigators in this field must also be alert to the possibility that science can be used, or even abused, in a retrospective and opportunistic manner to justify techniques that actually had no direct basis in scientific
The classic model is used to examine the ideas of an artist or group of artists to see how scientific knowledge was adopted or adapted for the purpose of making works of art. The most firmly established area for this kind of research is the phase of naturalism in European art from the Renaissance to the 19th century, during which the aims of empirical science were widely seen as providing a foundation for artists’ understanding of the appearance and representation of nature. Investigators in this field must also be alert to the possibility that science can be used, or even abused, in a retrospective and opportunistic manner to justify techniques that actually had no direct basis in scientific