Martin Kemp

The continuing theme of his research has been the relationship between scientific models of nature and the theory and practice of art. This has primarily involved the sciences of optics, anatomy and natural history in various key episodes in the history of artistic naturalism from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Increasingly, it has concerned issues of visualization, modelling and representation in science and art. The culmination of the optical researches is The Science of Art. Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale University Press, 1990 and 1992). Related topics from natural history and from natural history and the "hard" sciences are being explored in a book written during his five years as British Academy Wolfson Research Professor, Seen and Unseen. Visual Angles on Art and Science (OUP).
His main period researches have involved the Renaissance, summarised in Behind the Picture. Art and Evidence in the Italian Renaissance (1997), with ancillary areas of research in British and French art c. 1750-1830, in early photography and contemporary art. He writes regularly about living artists as well and is also editor and part-author of The Oxford History of Western Art.