SCIENTIST PAINTERS
S. Satyanarayana
Every one
knows that Mona Lisa is a world famous painting and that it stands for
beauty. But few people know that
Leonordo da Vinci drew the painting with La-Giokonda as the model. As enigmatic smile, a voluptuous
satisfaction and a dignified look in the eyes are the specialties of the
portrait that attract the attention of the viewers.
“The Last
Supper” painted by him in Milan attracts millions of people. Aesthetic beauty pervades his creation. He was a great construction genius. He was the engineer of Venice appointed by
the state. He constructed dams and
canals. He was a sculptor too, a
musician, a philosopher and a critic.
He had knowledge of medical science.
He dissected human and animal bodies and drew detailed sketches, which
were of great help to the medical world.
He possessed a thorough knowledge of biology, physics, chemistry,
mathematics, and geography. The
Clas-Linca museum was constructed at the place where he died. Forty sketches of helicopters, parachutes,
torpedo’s, sub-marines drawn by him are preserved in the museum. He discovered the machine gun.
In the
nineteenth century Jaques Falrin Gariter-de-Ahagoti, another scientist, painter
drew in colour, human anatomical sketches.
He taught students artistic anatomy.
His paintings are world famous.
Dr. Frank
Netter, M.D. is a famous American painter and scientist. The colour painting of human anatomy by him
is of great help to medical students.
A painting,
drawn imaginatively on the canvas accords a beautiful permanence to the glory
of nature. Though not a professional
zoologist, Walter Niks Mayer turned into a scientist with self-effort,
perseverance and keen interest. He
observed closely the physical features of insects and drew their sketches with
their great precision and feeling and published a book “The insects of the
world”. He discussed in great detail
the physical construction of the bodies of the insects, the movement of their
limbs, their colour, the sounds they produce, their behaviour and their
habitats. His efforts were commended by
scientists as unique.
It was Homi Bhabha who paned the way for the
Pokhran explosion of recent times in India, which created a place for India in
the nuclear club as the sixth nuclear nation in the world. Bhabha was as great as an artist as he was a
nuclear scientist. He was also an
engineer, astronomer, musician and a bio-physical scientist. He is called the friends of Trees. He was a versatile genius. He collected the paintings of many
painters. He was himself a good painter
in water colours and oils. His
paintings are mostly drawn from nature.
He had the scientist’s precision with the artist’s exuberation.
O.T.
Ravindran is another botanical painter who loses himself in the joy of creative
art. He was a horticulturist, photographer and a meteorologist. He painted flowers standing before flowering
plants and won world-wide acclaim as a painter of plants and flowers. He grows rare species of plants in his garden. He is called the James Anduban of
India. Anduban was a world famous name
in the painting wild birds. The horticultural society of London presented
Ravindran the green seal medal five times.
A painter
tries to bring about a balance between scientific thinking and
imagination. Such a great artist was
Enlan Been. He was the commander of the
Apollo 12 Lunar module of 1969. He was
a natural painter of landscape, still life and portrait. He painted the first painting connected with
space flights called “The spirit of light”.
He did on the large canvas Astronaut Dew Scott landing on the moon. His painting were bought by art lovers for
twelve thousand dollars in his days.
The first
Russian space commander of 1965 who voyaged in Soyuz space craft, Alexeyonov
was also a painter. In 1975 he met Been
in the space craft. Their paintings
were exhibited in the Paris scientific museum in 1985.
Charlie
Bonstal who was born in 1885 was another natural artist. He drew the imaginary picture of Jesley Fuel
Rocket long before the Right brothers.
In his seventeenth year he visited the League Observatory and observed
the skies through the 12” giant telescope and painted the picture of Saturn the
moment he went home. His paintings were
brought in book form in 1944. He
created the space craze in minds of the people with his painting. He painted the planets and the stars most
naturally which looked like photographs.
His imaginary painting proved useful in space research. The asteroid 3129 was named after him by scientists
as a tribute to his genius.
George Stub,
born in 1724, was another portrait painter who painted the beauty of
nature. He dissected hundreds of horses
for eighteen months and sketched their anatomical parts and published a book
“The Anatomy of the Horse”. He also
drew the sketches of the fetus in a mother’s womb.
John James
Anduban in America of the eighteenth century painted sketches of birds in
colour and black and white as well and published the book “Birds of
America”. The book is considered “the
Bible” by bird lovers and artists.
The artistic production of scientists
have been of great help to modern science.
The aim of writing this article is to induce in scientists a love of art
and encourage them to express themselves artistically through drawings and
paintings.