Mary Queen of Scots Channel Anamorphosis, a 3D Simulation

Summary

I’ve been going down some odd rabbit holes recently while researching my free online book-in-progress The Lost Art of Logarithms. Although the book is mostly focused on the history, use, meaning, and importance of logarithms, I believe that even histories of science and mathematics profit by being placed within political, cultural, social, and religious contexts. This is particularly true of John Napier’s invention of logarithms. It seems that Napier began thinking about logarithmic concepts while working on his first book — a mathematical analysis of the Book of Revelation published in 1593. Although Napier had been working on this book for some years, it was given special urgency by the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588, which had as its goal the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth. Spain decided to launch this attack by the shift in European geopolitics following the 1587 execution of Mary Queen of Scots. I have therefore been deep into research into the Protestant Reformation in general, the English and Scottish Reformations in particular, and the major players within these movements, including the Tudors and the Stuarts. While reading about Mary Queen of Scots, I came upon a reference to a channel anamorphosis painting (also known as a turning picture or a tabula scalata) on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, so of course I immediately thought about creating a 3D simulation. Here’s a short (15-second) YouTube video of a progressive view of the painting as the viewer moves from left to right: VIDEO The image shifts from a woman’s face to a skull. The National Galleries website labels this painting as Anamorphosis, called Mary, Queen of Scots, the word “called” suggesting that it might not actually be her. The artist is unknown but the date of composition is given as 1580, which is several years before Mary was executed, so the transformation into a skull seems a little premature. The two images are painted on a panel built ...