Science meets artOand dharma A Nobel-Prize-winning chemist turns his attention, and his Raman microscope, to ancient Tibetan art.
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minded scientist hops on just one single achieve immortality by writing our pan his office, Richard Ernst is never leg. An agile person, however, should pers, and for this we need endurance alone. possess at least two legsOor even more, Yamantaka, a fierce, nine-headed em- combined with wisdom.” like a centipede. Having many legs enThe dark blue Guhyasamaja sits sebodiment of wisdom, hangs above ables you to have a more stable stance, renely, entwining his six blue arms with Ernst’s desk and watches him while he opens further dimensions, and works. Ninety degrees to the leads to cross-fertilized creativleft, Guhyasamaja (“Assembly ity.” of Secrets” or “Secret Union”) is embraced by Sparshavajra in a metaphoric depiction of unity Color by numbers and duality. Ernst came to know Asian art Ernst’s companions are Ti“very accidentally”. But the betan scroll paintings known as paintings immediately appealed thangkas, an ancient form of to him because of their colorfulBuddhist art that follows strict ness, their two-dimensional narules yet bursts with color and ture, and the abundance of creativity. He began to collect metaphors. This “corresponds thangkas in 1968, when he and to our means of expressing obhis wife decided to take the servations in science,” he says. long way home to Switzerland “We think in terms of two-diafter spending five years in mensional symbolic representaCalifornia. “A brief visit to tions of data.” Nepal started my insatiable He bought one painting, love for Asian art,” he says. then another, then many more, Fierce and horned with a his interest and knowledge wide, powerful stance, the growing all the time. “Each azurite-colored Yamantaka painting reveals a universe in stands starkly against a backitself and offers fascinating inground of cinnabar, a bright sights,” he says. He began to red pigment abundant in Cenmeet other collectors, establishtral and East Asian art. The ing a worldwide network of placement of this painting friends who share this passion. In this 15th-century Tibetan painting, Guhyasamaja (blue) and Sparabove his desk is a fitting His other global network of shavajra embrace. Together, they symbolize unitysa duality in which choice by Ernst, who won the friends is made up of NMR two complementary parts belong together. 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry spectroscopists. This complethose of his pale greenish companion, “for his contributions to the developmentarity pleases Ernst. The art enthusiSparshavajra (“Diamond Touch”). The ment of the methodology of high-resoasts are “a very different group of people two figures are “very harmonious in how to talk to, and to become inspired by,” lution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.” Yamantaka is the they are entangled,” says Ernst. Like the he says. Taoist yin⫺yang, the couple symbolizes conqueror of death as well as an emNaturally, a man who has spent his “a duality where the two complementary scientific career thinking about NMR bodiment of wisdom. For those who parts belong inseparably together.” The believe in reincarnation, Yamantaka and analytical chemistry cannot simply duality could be thought of as represent- sit back and admire his paintings. He helps in the process of being reborn. “If ing science and art, science and society, you want to be reborn or you want to wants to understand them. or science and spiritualityOpairings that become immortal, you have to take adAt first, he bought a near-IR filter for all hold a strong attraction for Ernst. vantage of wisdom,” he says. “In this his digital camera to take photos that “I often use the image of a twoway, Yamantaka could be symbolic for would reveal the drawing on the canvas legged person,” he explains. “A narrowour endeavors as scientists. We want to underneath the pigment. “Many of
10.1021/AC901963Q 2009 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Published on Web 09/15/2009
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details, see his forthcoming pathese pigments are transparent per, J. Raman Spectrosc. 2009, in the near-IR,” he says. “Cin“Raman microscopy applied to nabar, for example, you can see large Central Asian paintings”.) through very beautifully,” as Each pigment offers a fascinatwell as yellow paints made from ing glimpse into the provearsenic sulfide. Some of the nience of a painting. bluesOindigo and ultramarineOalso are transparent at those wavelengths. AzurScience-meets-Dharma ite is not, and neither is malaBecause of Ernst’s immersion in chite green. Tibetan art, he took interest in Tibetan artists prepared the community of Tibetan refuthese canvases by covering them gees near Winterthur, Switzerwith a gesso, a mixture of chalk land, where Ernst’s family has and hide glue, and then the lived since the 15th century. He master inked the intricate image became involved with the Tibet so that his apprentices could Institute Rikon, a Buddhist Ernst passes some night hours with his beloved Raman microscope bring it to life with color. Peermonastery and cultural center, and his thangkas. Here, he analyzes pigments in a painting that deing behind the paint, Ernst and serves on its board. The picts Yama, the deity of death. On the computer screen is a Raman could see the tiny symbols left nonprofit institute was estabspectrum which verifies that the yellow area being studied consists by the master to tell his stulished in the 1960s under the predominantly of orpiment, As2S3. dents which pigments to patronage of the Dalai Lama, upstairs, in the darkened bedrooms that applyOan ancient color by numbers. known on the campus as His Holiness his three children slept in when they Museums use near-IR imaging, and the 14th Dalai Lama. UV imaging as well, to screen for forged were still at home. “Whenever one of The institute serves several functions, the kids moved out of the house, we had says Ernst: to serve the spiritual needs of paintings and to check the quality of another room for exhibits,” he says. restorations. A forger or an art restorer Tibetans in Switzerland, to maintain Because commercial Raman specwill select the colors only with the naked cultural and social ties, and to organize trometers can accommodate only small eye, Ernst explains, so the pigments’ and support an educational initiative objects, Ernst had to adapt his instruresponse at the other wavelengths is a known as Science-meets-Dharma. This ment. He constructed an xy stage with a sure test. “You can see almost immediprogram sends a handful of European large gantry so that he could place a full- scientists and teachers annually to India, ately where alterations have been applied,” he says. “This way, you can easily sized painting underneath and move the where they stay for half a year to two instrument above from point to point discover forgeries.” years teaching chemistry, biology, mathunder computer control, eventually Ever the spectroscopist, Ernst, who ematics, and other sciences to Buddhist scanning the entire canvas. has done some of his own conservation monks in monasteries. The exchange has work, adds, “If I put in a tiny amount of “Raman spectroscopy is a somewhat gone on for more than eight years, he a pigment, I try to match its appearance dangerous technique,” he notes. “You adds, “and we hope it will continue for a in all the different frequency domains.” have to irradiate strongly with a laser in long time to come.” order to generate, by a second-order The room next to his officeOhis “little He estimates that ⬃40 teachers have process, stray light which encodes the laboratory”Oholds a Bruker Optics Ragone so far, with 5 or 6 on site each vibrational frequency information of the man spectrometer, which he acquired a year. Indian scientists also teach. The material examined. And one could, in year and a half ago to analyze the piginstructors teach in male and female principle, damage the painting” by ments in his paintings. “It’s enormously monasteries, typically with women burning very tiny holes into it. He has convenient to have the collection and the teaching in the female monasteries. done this by mistake. But each hole is spectrometer in the same house,” he says. “The teaching is normally done in very small (⬃10 m), he adds. “If I “Getting [paintings] out of a museum is English, and some of it has to be transhave moved my Raman microscope a nowhere near as easy.” lated into Tibetan,” Ernst notes. “And few centimeters, I can’t find the hole His bedroom is on the same floor as one problem is that much of the science anymore.” the office and lab. Sometimes, when terminology does not even exist in TiOther than that, Raman is a marvelinsomnia strikes, he treads softly down betan. One has to create a new scientific ous tool for identifying in situ pigments the hall and fires up his Raman specvocabulary in itself.” Sometimes, the trometer. Many of the paintings are kept and pigment mixtures, adds Ernst. (For translators of books and manuscripts 7864
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traditions tell you a lot about improvise unfamiliar combinahuman society and its developtions of words that hardly anyment. I’m a scientist looking at one can comprehend afterward. these populations from a scienErnst says he has met the tific point of view.” Dalai Lama several times, and he helped organize an interdisciplinary and transcultural conThe quest for immortality ference with the Dalai Lama at Six or seven paintings from the Swiss Federal Institute of Ernst’s collection were exhibTechnology Zurich, where ited at the Art Institute of ChiErnst is a professor emeritus. cago and the Freer Gallery of Despite a lack of formal science Art a few years ago. Another education, Ernst notes, the group was shown in the Los Dalai Lama is extremely interAngeles County Museum of Art ested in scienceOand of course, and then traveled to Columbus, in the relationship between sciOhio. Other paintings ventured ence and Buddhism. He wrote to Spain, Australia, and The The Universe in a Single Atom: Netherlands. “They are travelThe Convergence of Science and ing almost as much as me,” he Spirituality, among other jokes. books. He says he always had artistic “His interest is enormous, interests, especially in music. In and his knowledge remarkable,” his youth, he wanted to become Ernst says admiringly. “He ora composer. “Composing music ganizes a yearly Mind and Life gives you the same satisfaction Conference in Dharamsala, Inas composing a scientific paFierce and powerful, Yamantaka is, for Buddhists, the conqueror of dia, to which he invites the very per,” he says. “We write them death who helps in the process of being reborn. Of Yamantaka’s nine best scientists and talks with to leave traces behind of our heads, the one peaceful head belongs to the related deity of wisdom, them about cosmology or brain work and our lives.” If immorManjushri. science or genetics or whattality can be achieved this ever.” access to the dharma, to spirituality,” wayOby leaving a record of one’s creativity and achievementOthen surely Much more of the Dalai Lama’s time, Ernst explains. “The Western teachers going to India also profit from the inter- earning a Nobel Prize qualifies. of course, is spent with the monks. action. They get exposed to a new Ernst considers his art collection “a Thousands of monks. “A large portion world, a spiritual world, heretofore unbeautiful complement to scientific of the Tibetan exile male population, known to them.” work.” Art is holistic and “real in terms about 20%, lives in monasteries,” notes of human emotion and life [being] dis“Buddhism is very compatible with Ernst. Their education, focused as it is tilled into these marvelous artworks.” science,” adds Ernst. “A Buddhist can on highly advanced spiritual matters, Yet, even as Ernst surrounds himself grow wisdom from wherever he generally doesn’t include science. The with these paintings for their vitality, he desires. . .so there is no real conflict beDalai Lama decided he wanted the is compelled to examine them with an tween science and Buddhism.” monks to be taught about science, so analytical eye. He needs both: his thangthat they could speak with him, and he Science and spirituality “are two kas and his Raman spectrometer. with them, about the most relevant asworlds which live very well together and In his home and his life, art and scipects of modern public life, including which are needed for covering all human ence live together, intertwined like the science. This was the impetus for Sciendeavors. Taking notice of each other smiling Guhyasamaja and his ence-meets-Dharma. could be fruitful on both sides.” companion. The program’s name “implies that Ernst finds religions, in general, fasci—Elizabeth Zubritsky it’s actually a two-way process: we supnating. But he clarifies: “I’m not religious. ply the science, and the monks provide I’m just interested in religions. . . .Spiritual
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