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Singular Value Decomposition of The Ambassadors

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            I was reading a note of computation of Ridge Regression in the afternoon, I noticed a super cute illustration of Singular Value Decomposition(SVD) drawn by Prof. Cynthia Rudin.

Singular Value Decomposition

Figure 1: Illustration of Singular Value Decomposition in Ridge Regression


            Maybe because I has been buried in The Crown recent days, the rotation and scaling of Singular Value Decomposition suddenly remind me of The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, which is the most well known example of anamorphosis in painting.

The Ambassadors

Figure 1: The Ambassadors


            Look at the bottom center of the painting, it’s an exactly geometric transformation of a skull. And the transformation is almost the same as the smiling face in Figure 1!

The transformed skull
Figure 2: The Transformed Skull


            Interestingly, there may always be different ways to explain and appreciate a theorem in math or a masterpiece of fine art.

P.S. I traveled to the UK in December 2016, and took the pictures below at the National Gallery. I did have great fun there.

The Ambassadors and a hippie
Figure 3: The Ambassadors and A Hippie


The Skull in The Ambassadors
Figure 4: The Skull in The Ambassadors