Tuesday | March 14, 2006
Optical Scientist Braves Fame and Pain In the Public Eye
By Lori Styles
Optical scientist Charles Falco is stunned by the intense interest - and notoriety - his research on optics and Renaissance art has brought him during the past five years.
He had no idea that his work would place him squarely at the center of a heated debate over just exactly what the Great Masters did and did not do in the privacy of their studios.
"To say that I had no idea whatever what the reaction to this would be is a serious understatement," he said.
His advice to fellow scientists whose scholarship might generate heat along with the light: "Get an unlisted home telephone number before you publish."
Back in 2000, Falco, a professor of optical sciences who holds the Chair of Condensed Matter Physics at The University of Arizona, read a "New Yorker" magazine story about renowned British artist David Hockney.
Hockney theorized that Renaissance masters used optical aids of some kind to help create nearly photographic detail in their paintings as early as the 1420s.
After reading the article, Falco began collaborating with Hockney. Together they discovered a wealth of optical evidence showing that Renaissance artists used concave mirrors and convex lenses when creating their masterpieces.
"Our findings show that optical instruments were in use -- by artists, not scientists -- nearly 200 years earlier than commonly thought possible," Falco said. "They account for the remarkable transformation in the reality of portraits made early in the 15th century."
That doesn't mean that gifted artists, including van Eyck, Caravaggio, Holbein, Velazquez and others "cheated," Falco explained. "The lens is a tool, just as is a paintbrush, easel, one of the various perspective machines or any of the many other tools an artist uses."
Falco discusses this and many other questions relating to his research in the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of his website, http://www.optics.arizona.edu/ssd/FAQ.html.
"In fact, a lens is not all that easy to use in this magnification range of about one-to-one," Falso said. "For this reason, I often say that if you think someone like van Eyck was 'merely' a genius, you underestimate him."
More than 100 newspaper and magazine articles appeared within just the first five months after publication of Hockney's 2001 book, "Secret Knowledge."
Millions of viewers saw television programs, including BBC and CBS' "60 Minutes" specials, that featured what's become known as the Hockney-Falco Thesis.
Falco has given more than 60 seminars and public lectures on the theory since 2000. "I try hard to limit my speaking engagements to about one a month," he said. Despite his resolve, Falco gave a total 22 lectures on this as well as his physics research last year.
The upside to all this is that Falco has excited the curiosity of thousands who are fascinated by a revolutionary idea that links art and science. It's one of the biggest rewards a teacher can have — transferring their enthusiasm for a subject to others.
Another upside is that it has opened doors and led to opportunities that would never be possible otherwise.
The sometimes strange or scary experiences that come with fame are the downside.
"Whether or not people agree with us, all but a small percentage of those who've responded to this work -- public or private -- have been reasoned and thoughtful," Falco said.
But there are exceptions.
One group was so upset it circulated a petition on the Internet and picketed the Metropolitan Museum in New York, denouncing Hockney and Falco for defaming the Old Masters.
In another case, the Optical Society of America prudently placed plainclothes bodyguards in the audience at one of Falco's invited conference talks.
Then there was the time when Falco received a thick package of diagrams and excerpts from old books, along with a four-page request that he study the materials to prove whether or not space aliens used optics to design Mayan temples.
Falco talked about the discoveries he made in collaboration with David Hockney, as well as his experiences as a scientist whose research has landed him in the public eye, as part of an invited session on "Physics for Everyone," held by the American Physical Society in Baltimore, Md., today.
For more information — in fact, for a lot more information and endless discussion on the Hockney-Falco Thesis -- use a Web search engine.
BIOSKETCH - Charles M. Falco is a professor of optical sciences at The University of Arizona, where he holds the UA Chair of Condensed Matter Physics.
He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Optical Society of America. He has published more than 250 scientific manuscripts (including six with David Hockney), co-edited two books and has seven U.S. patents, most of which are related to various physical properties of thin film materials.
In addition to his scientific research, in 1998 Falco was co-recipient of an award from the U.S. chapter of the Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art for his work as co-curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum's "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition. With more than 2 million visitors thus far in New York, Chicago, Bilbao, and the Guggenheim Las Vegas, it is by far the most successful exhibit of industrial design ever assembled, and is the fifth most attended museum exhibition of any kind.
His more recent collaboration with David Hockney has resulted in widespread coverage in the popular media, including an hour-long BBC special and a segment on CBS '60 Minutes.' Falco has given more than 60 invited talks and public lectures in nine countries, including the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on "Optics, Optical Instruments and Painting: The Hockney-Falco Thesis Revisted" and the "International Conference on Measuring Art: A Scientific Revolution in Art History."
