Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a well-renowned and published astrophysicist, known for his charismatic education style.  On a panel with other scientists and engineers, he discussed the shift in the purpose of painting, and its relation to Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  Painting used to be a tool for the elite; a wealthy man could hire an artist to paint a portrait of him, making the purpose of painting very direct and realistic.  But around the time that photography was born, art no longer needed to portray exactly what the artist saw, and allowed them instead to paint what they felt.  The mind and perspective of the individual artist now had a board to bounce off of – and the Starry Night was born.