Art History
A group of researchers from the National Observatory in Athens, Greece are studying 554 paintings depicting sunsets. They hope to learn how volanic eruptions over the centuries have affected the atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions put tons of ash, gas and other aerosols into the atmosphere, and this stuff can stay up there for years. Sunlight is scattered by the volcanic dust, and that creates more frequent and more brilliant red sunsets and sunrises. The paintings with the reddest sunsets theoretically represent the dirtiest skies.
The scientists studied paintings by 181 different artists, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Gainsborough, and J.M.W. Turner (also Scirocco Sunset by Alexander Cozens, pictured above), painted between 1500 and 1900. They compared the amounts of red and green in the skies in each picture. They found that the paintings with high red to green ratios were painted within three years of a volcanic erution.
The results agreed with other volcano studies using different methods, and history of volcanic eruptions.
Posted by
on 01/23 at 08:37 PM
That is a somewhat larger scale of “ Color The Weather” than we see on TV 13..
..but it makes all the sense in the world..these kids’ pictures are portraits of the weather they see and have come to know..so why wouldnt
Rembrandt have done the same..
Very interesting Frank!