Introduction
Mechanical objectivity is giving art a professional basis or backed up by data or science by the artist. It involves using scientific principles to display the painting or art and give it more acceptance toward the professionals. This ability to make art poses mechanical objectivity has been in place since the latter half of the 19th century (Daston & Galison, 2018). However, these mechanical objectivity attributes have been attributed greatly to the ability of art to remain true to nature (Daston & Galison, 2018). It is a concept aimed at revealing the scientific principle best in art pieces. To grasp how this objectivity is attained, the paper will analyze two images from the lecture slides that present the concept in detail. The first image I the Italian Baroque Painting is done by Artemisia Gentileschi 1593-1656, and the other is Leonardo’s Da Vinci anatomical drawing of the embryo in the womb. These images will be subjected to the principle or evidence they have attributed to achieving the artist’s mechanical objectivity through the artwork.
Italian Baroque Painting.
Artemisia’s art portrays a man who’s having his thoughts slit when lying in a horizontal position (2019). The knife being used is placed in a vertical position and mostly slicing in a vertical movement. This is what can be viewed from a literal approach to the image. But there is another visible feature, which is the blood coming out of the man that is represented to be spurting out to the ground in different trajectories (2019). The blood is also painted spurting in one direction only, which serves a mechanical purpose. Close examining the picture, as Galileo explains, the image reveals the scientific principle of projectiles. This principle supports and narrates how objects tend to react when forces act on them, revealing their kinetic trajectories. How the blood is presented to spurt out follows a certain degree of spurting with different projectiles. Some are closer to the head while others are widely dispersed. Hence the image represented along the painting in the lecture videos reveals the scientific principle endowed in the art to reveal the projectile principle.
The horizontal line and the knife represent the position in which the subject lies by the vertical line. The blood trajectory is represented by curves that reveal that the blood is dripping from a horizontal view and downwards below the vertical base (2019). This, in itself, reveals the mechanical objectivity that can be deduced from the image. It is not just painting; rather, the art articulates and recognizes and uses some scientific principles as later they were recognized. This means that the Italian Baroque painting is an artwork that has been realized and attributed to the recognition and application of a scientific principle giving it a basis to be accepted by the scientist.
Leonardo’s anatomical painting of the embryo in the womb, In this case, the image is an art showcasing the embryo in the uterus, which was made in the 16th century (Lim). In this century, it is worth noting that machines that could reveal the images of the embryo had not been invented, and even more so, the art was made out of imagination. This imagination presented the aspect of technology that is now dominant in looking, seeing, showing, and knowing how the embryo looks. But the art in itself reveals some of these basic principles during the early days, such as the position and look of the embryo in the uterus through imagination. This means that Benjamin’s ideology that the mind possesses the ability to contemplate things whether it’s through imagination or superstition as other beliefs of things that have not yet been fully realized in a manner that provides the researcher with some of the direction and later found to be true (Benjamin, 1969).
Let’s begin by looking at the image from a biological or medical profession. First, we can that the embryo has its head in an upward position (Lim). Now considering in this era, no technology was present to inform of the embryo’s position, the artist’s imagination led them to perceive the head upwards, especially during the early stages, which later one was proved after the invention of machines such as the ultrasound. This informs us that art possesses a mechanical objective that scientists can use to form bases and hypotheses upon which to work and prove true or otherwise (Benjamin, 1969). The medical practitioners can also represent the diagram of the embryo, which warrants the art more credit from its mechanical approach in the profession.
Also, the uterus’ shape is oval, and the dissection portrayed is symmetrical to opening commonly made by profession. The oval shape and its dissection are further expounded on how it was arrived at below the image, signifying the artist’s ability to manipulate shapes and bring out the intended shapes (Lim). Later on, this concept emerged to be called the three-dimensional approach but is common in this painting, revealing how the artist’s brain used a mechanical approach to arrive at the image in 3d. There is also the aspect of symmetry that the embryo is inscribed in a 3dimensional approach. This means that the image from a mechanical approach reveals the principle of symmetry. The spherical shape can be dissected or divided symmetrically, a concept that during the artwork era had not been discovered. This revealing art forms and adheres to some mathematical principles and the scientific principles of symmetry. Therefore, the art proved to be a valuable approach toward achieving the mechanical objective and provides insights into some of the mechanical aspects being practiced today.
Conclusion
It is worth noting that these two images developed in an era where the mechanical and technological capabilities were limited by the importance that art holds in terms of mechanical objectives. A close examination of the two reveals mechanical principles being employed in modern times that the artwork has endorsed, giving the artwork profound meaning and acceptance. Therefore, when featuring this artwork, the mechanical approach always is supported.
