Ancient Greeks found perfect visual harmony and balance in a simple principle known today as the golden mean. Out of it grew a slew of principles that, in essence, all refer back to the same thing: order out of
chaos.
Did the Greeks find those perfections in nature? We know that Phidias recognized them in the human body, but along ions of human history, artists and scientists
began to notice patterns in nature that follow the same proportions found in early Greek architecture and art work.
And then came methods of plotting these observations for applying to composing paintings and other two-dimensional art works. One of these is the golden mean and
its relationship to the Fibonacci numbers. Two others (very similar to each other) create alignment and placement diagrams that made their way into classical painting and beyond: they are dynamic symmetry and the 14-line armature.
18th century classical painter, Jacques Louis David is one of many who arranged his compositions according to these alignments and placements. An example is his
mythological painting, Diana and Apollo Killing Niobe's Children. (More about this in a moment.)
Artists today use these alignments and placements intuitively, just by following the "sweet spots" principle and corner to corner alignment. But let's
play with the 14-line armature for a few minutes.
1. Draw a
rectangle, any proportion will work.
2. Now on the outside of it, make a mark halfway between the corners on all four sides.
3. Next draw a straight line connecting each of the opposing corners.
4. Continue by connecting the x's on the top and bottom to each of their opposing corners.
5. Then connect all the middle markers with straight lines.
6. Last, connect the middle marks to each of their opposing corners.
You have just created a 14-line armature. Not look at this:
I've pointed out in David's painting major alignments with the armature. Notice also, that placements of major focal points are at intersections of the
armature.
If you did this armature construction with me, I bet you didn't think about the pandemic while you were doing so 😊. If you're curious about having more fun with it, try fitting it over any painting by your favorite artists and see how their alignments fit, one way or another, into the structure.
CONTINUE TO BE SAFE AND ENJOY A DELIGHTFUL WEEKEND!
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