Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry Night” has long inspired not only artists, but also scientists. In 2022, researchers from the journal Physics of Fluids said: the vortices on the canvas reproduce the laws of turbulence described by the theory of mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov. However, a new study by scientists at the University of Washington refutes this sensation.
Painted in 1889 in a mental hospital in France, “The Starry Night”, with its chaotic spirals of sky, resembles the movement of swirls in air or water. The authors of last year’s paper argued: van Gogh intuitively reflected the principles of turbulent flow, which obey Kolmogorov’s theory. This concept explains how energy is distributed among vortices of different sizes in liquids and gases. In their opinion, the artist accurately conveyed not only the shape of the swirls, but also their intensity and the distance between them.
Mistake in the picture
Professors Mohamed Gad-el-Hak and James Riley of the University of Washington published counterarguments in the Journal of Turbulence. They note: Kolmogorov’s theory deals with the motion of fluids, whereas the 2022 paper erroneously applied it to scalar quantities such as pressure, temperature, or density. For example, applying a mathematical model requires constant flow rates, something you don’t see in Van Gogh’s abstract brushstrokes.
“There is not a single measurable parameter on the canvas that corresponds to scalar fields. In addition, the atmospheric conditions in the picture don’t match the theory’s assumptions,” Riley explains.
Art and science
The controversy raises the question of the boundaries between art and science. “The Starry Night” remains a symbol of creative genius, but the attempt to ‘tweak’ it to fit physical laws seems a strained one.
“The painting is striking precisely because of its abstractness,” say the authors of the study, ”This is what makes it a timeless masterpiece, regardless of scientific interpretations.
Thus, the chaos of “The Starry Night” is more an emotional expression of Van Gogh’s inner state than a precisely calculated reproduction of turbulence. And this freedom from the rules forever imprinted the work in the history of art.
Earlier we reported on how ISS astronauts showed stunning images of Earth from space, similar to Van Gogh’s masterpieces.
According to phys.org
