Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece, ‘Starry Night,’ has captivated art enthusiasts for generations. Now, new research suggests there’s more to the painting’s turbulent, swirling sky than meets the eye. A team of researchers in China has discovered that the brushstrokes and colors in ‘Starry Night’ exhibit characteristics remarkably similar to the unseen fluid dynamics processes occurring in our atmosphere.
Van Gogh painted ‘Starry Night’ in June 1889, during his stay at an asylum in southern France. The painting depicts the view from his window, showcasing a swirling sky above an imaginary village. It’s renowned for its detailed brushstrokes and vibrant hues. The researchers, recognizing the similarity between the painting’s swirling shapes and the patterns in fluid dynamics, delved deeper into the artwork.
Their analysis, published in the journal *Physics of Fluids*, uncovered a fascinating connection. The researchers meticulously examined the brushstrokes and colors in the painting, revealing strong similarities to the ‘hidden turbulence’ of gases in the atmosphere. “It reveals a deep and intuitive understanding of natural phenomena,” explained Yongxiang Huang, a fluid dynamics expert and oceanographer at Xiamen University in China. “Van Gogh’s precise representation of turbulence might be from studying the movement of clouds and the atmosphere or an innate sense of how to capture the dynamism of the sky.”
They focused on the 14 ‘whirls’ in the painting’s sky. These shapes adhered to patterns predicted by Kolmogorov’s law, a physical rule that describes how atmospheric gas moves at different scales based on inertial energy. In ‘Starry Night,’ this energy is represented by the intensity of the yellows in the painting. The researchers also found that the spacing and weight of the brushstrokes aligned with Batchelor’s scaling, a principle describing how small eddies and droplets behave in turbulent fluids.
It’s important to note that Kolmogorov and Batchelor formulated their laws decades after Van Gogh’s death. Therefore, the artist was not consciously applying these principles. Rather, he likely drew inspiration from his keen observations of the sky or other naturally occurring spirals. While the connection between energy and the color yellow is likely coincidental, ‘Starry Night’ undeniably evokes processes found in the natural world.
This isn’t the first time scientific investigations have revealed hidden layers in famous artworks. Previous studies have shown how Monet and Turner’s atmospheric landscapes depicted air pollution, and a hidden ‘madman’ message on ‘The Scream’ was traced back to Edvard Munch himself. Even a new species of peacock spider was named after ‘Starry Night’ due to its colorful swirls resembling the painting’s iconic design.
The latest findings further solidify ‘Starry Night’s’ status as a masterpiece that transcends artistic boundaries. It seems Van Gogh, with his innate understanding of the natural world, captured a deeper scientific truth in his brushstrokes, revealing a captivating connection between art and science.
