“Turbulent skies have often inspired artists, particularly in the iconic swirls of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. … In contrast to previous studies that examined only part of this painting, all and only the whirls/eddies in the painting are taken into account in this work, following the Richardson–Kolmogorov’s cascade picture of turbulence. … This result suggests that van Gogh had a very careful observation of real flows, so that not only the sizes of whirls/eddies in The Starry Night but also their relative distances and intensity follow the physical law that governs turbulent flows. … Our study, thus, unveils the hidden turbulence captured within The Starry Night.”[1]
“In 1914, the ophthalmologist Germán Beritens wrote the book El Astigmatismo del Greco that claimed that El Greco’s elongated perspective could be explained by astigmatism, which is the result of a cornea not being perfectly spherical, affecting how the brain processes light.”[2]
There is another article that corroborates Beritens’s theory. The article focuses on the painting to the left, entitled “Painting of an Old Man,” though it is thought to be a self-portrait.
Highlights
• Icono-diagnostic is used for the retrospective diagnosis of neurological disease.
• Congenital enophthalmos, strabismus and amblyopia are identified in El Greco’s attributed self-portrait.
• Right cortical lesion resulting in left side neglect is shown to be present.
• Agraphia consistent with left cortical lesion is testified by documentary evidence.[3]
The similarity in both theories is that Van Gogh and El Greco simply painted what they saw.
It’s of course possible that Van Gogh saw turbulence, even though it is “hidden” to everyone else. Kolmogorov’s theory of turbulence is a mathematical framework for understanding how energy transfers through turbulent fluid flows. It is not an induction from observation.
Did Van Gogh also see turbulence in the face and coat of his physician, Portrait of Dr. Gachet?
“The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” Vincent Van Gogh. Not: I see turbulence everywhere and I paint it.
Maybe the astigmatism theory explains the form of El Greco’s Portrait of an Old Man. But his most important works are all distended.
Vision of Saint John
Surely this is a creative act, a new form of expression in painting.
Science has not been able to explain creativity. So, scientific attention to art is a piecemeal attempt to side-step creativity. Van Gogh and El Greco did not create new modes of painterly expression. They simply painted what they saw. In Van Gogh’s case, he had an astonishing ability to see air turbulence. El Greco had a visual defect.
Even Wilde, in other respects a Romantic, denies creativity. “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” The artist simply paints what he sees, although what he sees seems to be the result of some mental or physiological aberration.
I’ll close with this quote. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” — Edgar Degas
[1] https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof/article-abstract/36/9/095140/3312767/Hidden-turbulence-in-van-Gogh-s-The-Starry-Night?redirectedFrom=fulltext
[2] https://news.artnet.com/art-world/el-greco-eye-condition-2439250
[3] https://www.jns-journal.com/article/S0022-510X(16)30780-8/abstract
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