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Ancient architects and artists had a way of striking resonant
chords in the viewers of their work. This book points to a possible
way of returning a sense of unity to the visual arts through a
combination of theoretical ideas and practical methods, of
narrative description and visual exercises. Proportion, the use of
number and geometry as design tools, is seen in the context of the
search for the beautiful. From the theoretic, symbolic mathematics
of the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Neo-Platonists, the book
proposes an aesthetic theory, a way of approaching beauty, rooted
in the idea of psyche and expressed through the ancient sciences of
arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Topics treated include:
an explanation of the concept of symbolic or qualitative number; an
introduction to Pythagorean and Platonic numerical philosophy; the
nature of beauty and its relation to number; the derivation of the
ancient musical octave; the Golden Section, its mathematics,
geometry, and relation to philosophy, particularly its role as a
geometrical logos; and the connection of these ideas to the
numerical-geometrical canons of classical architecture. These
concepts are illustrated step by step as applied to the elements
and archetypal compositions of classical architecture, such as the
order and portico, using arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic ratio
methods. The proportional idea is illustrated with reconstructions
of exemplary buildings based on the methods described, following
through the historical periods of Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle
ages, the Italian Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. Though the
book is focused on architecture, the methods presented may be used
by artists and designers in any visual field. The book suggests
several pathways on which contemporary designers might move toward
creating a sane and beautiful world through a merger of art and
science.
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