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Chinese and French scientists claim that in the painting “Starry Night,” the outstanding Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) demonstrated an excellent understanding turbulence .
“Starry Night” Vincent van Gogh One of the most famous paintings in the world. It has repeatedly been recognized as the greatest work of art of all time. The legendary swirling background of the canvas, painted in 1889, has long been interpreted as a reflection of the artist’s troubled state of mind. Despite the fact that “Starry Night” is now considered one of Van Gogh’s most outstanding works, just a few months after creating the painting, he referred to it as a “failure.”
A new study has shown that this masterpiece of post-impressionism, housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, holds not only artistic but also significant scientific value. The team of researchers believes it represents an accurate reflection of hidden turbulence. This is how the researchers refer to gusts of wind, invisible to the naked eye, which are visualized in the form of complex vortices.
What did the scientists learn?
During their research, experts analyzed a high-resolution digital image of the painting. As a result, they discovered the same hidden turbulence in the depiction of the sky by the artist. The scientists specifically examined 14 main vortex forms in the painting and the intervals between brush strokes that convey the complex movement of air.
The lead author of the study, Yunsian Huang, a graduate student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, noted that the artist demonstrated a “deep and intuitive understanding of natural phenomena.”
“The precise depiction of turbulence in Van Gogh’s work may have arisen from studying the movement of clouds and the atmosphere or from an innate sense of how to portray the dynamics of the sky,” suggested the scholar.
According to researchers, the painting visualizes the so-called “cascade energy theory.” According to this physical theory, air moves from a larger circular flow (whirlwind) to a smaller one. In other words, Vincent van Gogh had an “innate understanding of atmospheric dynamics,” the publication quoted the scientists. Daily Mail Ultimately, the authors of the study concluded that the artist most likely observed the turbulent winds very closely.
According to scientists, the artist was able to reproduce not only the size of the vortices but also their intensity.
The results of the study were published in the journal Physics of Fluids.
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Interestingly, the largest vortex in the center of the canvas was previously interpreted not as hidden air turbulence, but as another galaxy.
In 2015, American artist and photographer Michael Benson stated that “Starry Night” is a depiction of the Whirlpool Galaxy (or M51). It is located in the constellation Canes Venatici, 37 million light-years away from Earth. The diameter of the galaxy is about 100 thousand light-years.
