Since the Renaissance numerous painters have looked to science in order to understand their daily reality, to acquire skill in the exercise of perspective and colour, or as a stimulus to the development of their particular artistic sensibility. The ten paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collections selected for inclusion in the latest exhibition in the <exchanging gazes> series illustrate different aspects of the relationship between art and science over the centuries.

The first group reflects 19th-century American landscape painters’ interest in the natural sciences; the second focuses on the impact that scientific theories on colour had on late 19th and early 20th-century painters in Paris; and the third and final group includes examples of works in which avant-garde artists set out to create spatial dimensions based on modern geometrical theories. Preceding these images, the display opens with a painting of a library, symbolising wisdom and knowledge.

The exhibition takes place on the first floor Balcony Gallery with free, direct access from the Main Hall.