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Arts and Sciences. a Personal Perspective of Tibetan Painting

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Arts and Sciences. a Personal Perspective of Tibetan Painting ART AND CHEMICAL SCIENCES 900 CHIMIA 2001, 55. No. 11 Chimia 55 (2001) 900-914 © Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft ISSN 0009-4293 Arts and Sciences. A Personal Perspective of Tibetan Painting Richard R. Ernst* Abstract: The relationship between the arts and the sciences is discussed from the standpoint of a scientist and passionate art lover. The two playgrounds of human creativity have much in common and have cross- fertilized each other over centuries. An active involvement in an artistic discipline can stimulate scientific creativity by direct analogy and by emotional and intellectual experience. The excitement of a scientist for the arts is exemplified by the author's adventures in Tibetan painting. The scientific study of Tibetan thangkas is discussed by examples from the author's collection. The analysis of pigments and the dating of the paintings are covered. In addition, some background information on the historical and iconographic context is given. Keywords: Arts and sciences' Dating of paintings' Pigment analysis· Tibetan Buddhism· Tibetan thangkas Arts and Sciences which have no equivalence in former pe- function may equally well be performed riods or in nature. And with the aid of the by an intelligently programmed and pow- Much has already been written about the computer-based synthesis of music and erful computer which has the advantage hidden link between the arts and the sci- of graphical creations, the very last limi- of not being distracted by emotional de- ences. The two highly creative fields are tations, imposed by the difficult musical sires. evidence of the ingenious human mind. instruments and the painter's self-willed How boring must it be to meet one of Human culture could hardly be conceived brush, are overcome, leading to a com- these 'perfectly objective scientists'! Per- without the arts or without the sciences. plete liberation of the creative artist's sons without personality! True function- They belong inseparably to us and form mind. Breaking as many barriers of con- aries and operators! - But how different essential parts of our identity. vention as possible seems to have be- are in fact some of our greatest and most At first sight, the two domains of cre- come the trademark of a respected artist. respected scientists! Men and women ativity have developed appearances as The great works of modem art still ex- with deeply humanistic and emphatic disparate as possible. Especially the con- press eternal truths, but through the personalities, individuals with a broad temporary arts have liberated themselves individualized perception of an artist who horizon and often with more cultural from all conceivable constraints. For ex- values his own emotions and imagina- knowledge than those who professionally ample in painting, the abstract styles in- tions infinitely more than the conventions deal with culture. Often scientists possess troduced during the first half of the 20th of society. highly developed artistic skills, some are century by visionary painters, such as The fundamental task of the sciences, excellent graphical artists, others write Wasily Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock, on the other hand, is understood to be the handsome novels, and, perhaps most fre- abandoned all preestablished 'natural' objective search for the laws of nature, quently, one encounters devoted and su- patterns in order to create a novel uni- which are believed to have absolute va- perbly performing musicians among our verse reflecting exclusively the painter's lidity and should in no way reflect the top scientists. intent. Similar trends characterize the momentary emotions of the scientist who One may conclude that even 'real sci- developments in 20th century music. The has discovered them. Restraining the re- entists' have a hidden humane side. Their atonal musical inventions by composers searcher's emotionally driven personali- minds are not entirely satiated by objec- like Anton Webem and Arnold Schon- ty, while performing reproducible experi- tive research activities, and they are in berg are based on their own set of rules ments, collecting objective and truthful need of a complementary humanistic or data, conceiving explanations, and writ- artistic 'hobby'. To some extent, the ing papers in a style as impersonal as pos- complementarity of the arts for supple- ·Correspondence: Prof. Dr. R.R. Ernst laboratorium fUr Physikalische Chemie sible, seem to be very basic prescripts of menting what a scientist misses during ETH Honggerberg HCI the scientific profession. The researcher, his specialized daily occupation might CH-8093 Zurich so-to-say, establishes merely an intellec- indeed provide some explanation for the Tel.: +41 1 6324368 Fax: +41 1 632 1257 tual link within the machinery of infor- extra-scientific activities of scientists. E-Mail: [email protected] mation acquisition. To some extent, his But it does not convey the full truth. ART AND CHEMICAL SCIENCES 901 CHIMIA 2001, 55, No, 11 In fact, there is at least as much com- compositions. Another example of self- At that time, I devoted most of my leisure monness as there is disparity between the imposed restriction in the arts are the time to musical performance and compo- 'exact' sciences and the 'liberal' arts. mystics of numbers in I.S. Bach's com- sition, besides experimenting with fasci- First, the sciences are not at all as objec- positions and those of many others. It nating chemicals in the basement of our tive and 'exact' as stated above and often seems that also artists need hurdles, barri- home. maintained by the proponents of absolute ers, or fringe conditions against which Music opened, so-to-say, a door to scientific truth. A great deal of human in- they can fight in order to stimulate or higher spheres of perception which tuition and imaginativeness is necessary channel their creativity, in a similar man- went way beyond the daily sensations in for the rationalization of scientific meas- ner that scientists have to pay unrestrict- school and family. Still today, I cannot urements. Although the discovered 'laws ed obedience to experimental data. - And live for long without musical stimulation, of nature' may explain perfectly all above all, the mtist is compelled to ex- although I have little occasion for active known experimental facts, they are mere- press the message he has in mind or that performance. Experiencing classical mu- ly humane model perceptions, but cannot is on his task sheet. Especially in com- sic of all shades is nearly as important to be claimed to be 'absolute' in the true missioned art, the restrictions imposed me as is breathing air. sense of the word, and they involve often upon the artist might be extremely severe. Later I discovered the fascination of as much 'invention' as they are 'discov- In medieval times, the majority of the art European literature and European paint- eries'. According to the principles of cog- production was connected to its religious ing. As much as in music, I tried to avoid nition, we are never capable of achieving function, and religious dogma had to be the commonly traveled paths. I became more than the construction of models that followed very strictly. In fact, painters interested in early Romanesque and Goth- match nature. 'True' nature can only be and musicians in the middle ages were ic painting, on the one hand, and in 20th guessed but never proven. In many ways, considered as craftsmen, rather than lib- century painting on the other. Medieval the design of such theoretical or heuristic erated artists. religious art provided me, being myself at models requires as much creativity and In summary, there are indeed intimate most an agnostic, a fascinating access to intuition as is needed in the arts. It is relations between the arts and the scienc- nonverbal spirituality and to religious well-known that also in the sciences es. Both fields require intuition and crea- symbolism, complementing my musical beauty, simplicity, and symmetry often tivity, and in both fields greatness is experiences which had a similar vital distinguish the superior theories from the measured by the mastery of inherent dif- function. less successful ones. We must 'love' a ficulties and nevertheless expressing eter- Only much later, in 1968 during a theory before we are ready to accept it. nal truths or achieving eternal beauty. It journey to Asia, a first unexpected con- Aesthetics clearly has great importance is sometimes said that a sculptor liberates tact with Asian arts and in particular with in the sciences. It seems, for example, not a sculpture which is already invisibly Buddhist art revealed a fascinating new too far reached to compare in terms of contained in the raw block of hard rock, world of cultural and philosophical creativity the conception of relativity in the same way that a scientist reveals experiences. This lucky event initiated theory with the invention of the Odyssey the laws of nature hidden in the raw ex- my insatiable interest and excitement for by Homer or the b-minor mass by I.S. perimental data. Or it is claimed that Tibetan art. It shall serve as a personal Bach. those human beings who are capable of example for illustrating the fascination of On the other hand, the stringent scaf- preserving during their entire lifetime a scientist by the arts. fold or corset imposed upon the freedom their youthful curiosity and spontaneity of the researcher by the experimental may become scientists or, in the best data, which are not allowed to be mani- case, artists. Tibetan Art, an Example pulated under any circumstances, is not It is only natural that revolutionary unique to the sciences alone. Also the arts scientists are attracted by the revolution- What makes Ti betan art [J -10] so know a multitude of scaffolds or corsets ary arts. They intuitively feel the related- attractive to a western physical chemist? which the artists are not permitted to vio- ness and they often find open-minded What is it about the art of one of the poor- late without forfeit.
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