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Art Study Center Seminar: Theories of Beauty—Can Math Help Us Understand Art? [CANCELED]

William Hogarth, British, The Analysis of Beauty, Plate 1, 1753. Etching and engraving. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of William Gray from the collection of Francis Calley Gray, G1841.

Seminar

Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

This event has been canceled.

At the turn of the 18th century, French art theorist Roger de Piles developed a system to quantify the relative merits of Europe’s most famous painters, assigning each a numerical score. Later writers and artists such as William Hogarth built on and modified de Piles’s ideas.

In this seminar, Ethan Lasser, the Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Curator of American Art and head of the Division of European and American Art, and Oliver Wunsch, the Maher Curatorial Fellow of American Art, will investigate these theories. Joining them will be Horace W. Brock, a mathematician and economist who has developed a formula to quantify the aesthetic power of objects and works of art.

The seminar will take place in the Art Study Center, Level 4.

Free admission, but registration is required. Registration for this seminar will open on Friday, March 22, 2019, and participants will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, please email am_register@harvard.edu.

Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of the program to allow sufficient time to sign in at the Art Study Center reception desk, and be prepared to present a photo ID.
 
Lockers are available on the Lower Level, Level 1, and Level 4 to check bags, coats, umbrellas, and any food or drink.