One of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous creations is “The Starry Night,” an oil painting of a quaint French village at night with a blue night sky that dramatically swirls around the yellow stars and moon.
It’s easy to admire this painting as a casual viewer, but if you research fluid dynamics, one thing in particular stands out: those iconic swirls in the sky. To a physicist, they look an awful lot like the swirls that atmospheric turbulence produces. And some researchers have been wondering if Van Gogh’s swirls actually match the mathematical models of turbulence theory.
Well, a team of researchers from China and France set out to analyze all the swirls in “The Starry Night,” and it turns out that Van Gogh had a knack for depicting the forces of nature. Their results were published in the journal Physics Of Fluid.
Guest host Anna Rothschild sits down with Dr. Francois Schmitt, research professor in physics at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and co-author of the recent study, to talk about the hidden physics in this famous painting.
Further Reading
- Watch “Decoding da Vinci,” about the science behind Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpieces, via PBS NOVA.
- Read about climate change clues hidden in art history via BBC.
Segment Guests
Francois Schmitt
Dr. Francois Schmitt is a physics researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Wimereux, France.
Segment Transcript
The transcript of this segment is being processed. It will be available within one week after the show airs.
Meet the Producers and Host
About D. Peterschmidt
@dpeterschmidtD. Peterschmidt is a producer, host of the podcast Universe of Art, and composes music for Science Friday’s podcasts. Their D&D character is a clumsy bard named Chip Chap Chopman.