Event 3: The Getty Center

I was always told about how the Getty Center was nothing short of a visual treat but when I went there this past week I was absolutely amazed. I was completely taken in by the sheer beauty of it. I simply could not believe that I had never been there before. It was such a peaceful spot, buried away from the hustle and bustle of life in LA. It was so fascinating to actually pay attention to and notice how science has always been used to create beautiful art.

In the 1300s Venetians started adding tin oxide to the glass mixture in order to produce a kind of opaque white glass. They called this glass “lattimo” (latte means milk in Italian). In the 1500s craftsmen started using thin sticks of lattimo to create filigree glass- glass with beautiful patterns and designs. The white thin sticks were manipulated with hot glass to create parallel stripes, spirals or twists.

During the Renaissance period, talented artists in Tuscany developed a special type of decoration referred to as “relief-blue.” Ceramics were painted in a thick cobalt blue glaze and the blue pigment used was mixed with a large proportion of lead. The addition of lead would cause it to swell during firing, which made it stand out in relief. I thought this picture of a Relief-Blue Jar with Rampant Lions was absolutely beautiful and perfectly demonstrated how the integration of art and science is not a relatively new phenomenon.

Another thing that I found particularly interesting was the stream outside, which ran though the Central Garden. I thought it was amazing how the designers of the garden strategically placed boulders and rocks of varying sizes in the streambed to vary the sounds at different points from the flowing water. The designers had to have had some scientific understanding to be able to add this special touch to what would otherwise just be a beautiful flowing stream.

My visit to the Getty Center only made me further realize how deep and interrelated the relationship between art and science is. It made me think about how, as discussed in the lectures of Week 1, people are naïve to believe that artists and scientists have nothing in common and that opting for art implies that one has given up completely on science and vice versa.