The painting titled “Husband and Wife” was created by the Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto in approximately 1543. It has been theorized that this painting may have been created using optical concave mirror projection, a highly controversial proposition as only one other artist at the time, Leonardo Da Vinci, had access to this type of technology. Although perspective can also be used to create an image of this kind, experts believe he possibly used concave mirrors. Scholars have also found evidence that such techniques were used by artists at the time in order to create their masterpieces.
This painting is an interesting example of a artwork created on the precise techniques that scientists and engineers have studied since then. Painters of Lotto’s time period were not privy to these techniques normally associated with experts in geometry and physics. Yet here is a wonderful testament of what talented artist like Lorenzo Lotto were able to do as well as draw such complete knowledge from various sources available at his disposal.
This interesting piece of art serves as a reminder about the skilful works of Lorenzo Lotto during the Renaissance period; but it also points us towards another remarkable piece of work – Proun G7 by El Lissitzky dating back to 1923, which serves as an excellent example of geometrical abstraction during the era.
