Illustrating Art and Science: Metaphor and Cutaway

Slope

Reductionist Art

 

Visitor: What’s it mean?

Artist: It’s the slope of my life.

Visitor: Getting better every day?

Artist: No, no. It represents my accumulation of debt. If you buy the painting, you could help reverse the trend.

_____________

Voice-over

Anatomy

Reductionist art. There are various strains, ranging from metaphorical as above to cutaway drawing developed in the Renaissance. Janvan Calcar (1499-1546), illustrated the anatomical findings of Andreas Vesalius in this way.

Metaphorical art is about crossing boundaries of narration and feeling. It is symbolic. It is usually about art (and sometimes art for art’s sake).

Cutaway illustration, on the other hand, is about detailed explanation of underlying elements, structures or processes. Art in the service of science and technology.

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