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"Salvator Mundi," a painting recently attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, could prove that the artist was suffering from a vision problem called strabismus, according to a new journal.
Credit: Image courtesy of JAMA Network® © 2018
Leonardo da Vinci may have literally seen the world differently.
A new report suggests that the famous Renaissance artist may have had an eye disease that helped him better represent the 3D world on a flat surface during drawings and paintings.
The report, which analyzed six works of art that are probably portraits or self-portraits of Leonardo, suggests that the artist may have had a squint, or cross-eyed, a condition in which the eyes from one person do not look in the same direction. at the same time.
In some cases of strabismus, the vision of the "wandering" eye is suppressed, giving the person a 2D "monocular" vision that could be advantageous for painting and drawing, the author wrote from the report Christopher Tyler, Visual Neuroscientist and Professor at the City Division of Optometry and Visual Sciences at the University of London in the United Kingdom. [Leonardo Da Vinci’s 10 Best Ideas]
Thus, strabismus "may have contributed to da Vinci's exceptional ability to capture space on flat canvas," writes Tyler in the Oct. 18 issue of the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.
An artistic eye
Some studies have shown that visual artists are more likely than non-artists to have problems with stereoscopic vision (perception of depth with two eyes), such as strabismus. And research has shown that some famous painters, including Rembrandt van Rijn and Pablo Picasso, presented a strabismus based on analyzes of their eyes in self-portraits.
However, there are few confirmed self-portraits of Leonardo da Vinci, which makes it difficult to assess when he was suffering from the disease.
In the new report, Tyler analyzed six works of art as portraits or self-portraits of the artist, or images that may reflect his likeness.
For example, it is believed that the sculptures "David" and "Young Warrior" by Andrea del Verrocchio are inspired by Leonardo, who was the apprentice of the older artist. Three other works of the study, "The Young John the Baptist", "Salvator Mundi" and "The Man of Vitruvius", all of Leonardo, are not generally considered to be self-portraits of Leonardo, but they may have captured part of his appearance. , Wrote Tyler. (Leonard himself said: "[The soul] guide the painter's arm and make it reproduce, because it appears to the soul that it is the best way to represent a human being. Finally, the analysis also included a self-portrait of Leonard in old age.
By analyzing the position of the pupils in the eyes of these works, Tyler discovered that the eyes tended to exhibit an exotropy, a type of strabismus in which one or both eyes turned to the outside. The presence of exotropy was more marked in portraits than in self-portraits. An explanation for this might be that Leonardo had "an intermittent exotropy," which means that the state of the artist's eye was not constant, Tyler said. For example, the condition could have been more serious when Leonardo was relaxed but corrected himself when he was attentive or focused on a specific object.
It is important to note that the analysis presents a hypothesis and that she can not prove that Leonardo was suffering from this disease.
Nevertheless, Tyler noted that having an intermittent exotropy would be "rather practical for the painter, because looking at the world with one eye allows a direct comparison with the drawn or painted flat image."
And if Leonardo's strabismus was intermittent, he could have also switched to a stereoscopic view of the world, Tyler said.
Originally published on Science live.
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