The Art and Science of Light in the Middle Ages

How did medieval thinkers and artists explain natural phenomena like the sun, stars, and rainbows?

In this episode, Jessie visits Lumen: The Art and Science of Light, one of Getty’s nine PST ART: Art and Science Collide exhibitions, and talks with curator Kristen Collins about the history of light in the Middle Ages. The art of the time reflects how science and the divine intertwined to explain natural phenomena like the sun, stars, and rainbows. Light is often portrayed as coming from the heavens, and we see many portrayals of Jesus seated on a rainbow.

Jessie also takes two short field trips, one to the Camera Obscura in Santa Monica to talk with historian Margaret Gaida about optics, and one to Getty’s Entrance Hall to see Charles Ross’s Spectrum 14, a contemporary installation connected to Lumen, in which various large prisms installed in the building’s clear ceilings catch sunlight throughout the day and season, casting rainbows across the space. Finally, Jessie chats with curator Glenn Phillips in Getty’s manuscripts room about how Ross wanted to connect people to the Middle Ages through a sense of celestial motion.