Wall Art & The Golden Ratio Working Together

The ancient Egyptians were the foremost to apply mathematics in artwork. It seems almost certain that they ascribed magical properties to the golden section, and utilized it in the creation of their huge pyramids. As the golden section is discovered in the design and beauty of nature, it can also be utilized to achieve appeal and balance in the design of wall art. This is only a tool though, and not a rule, for painting. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and philosopher, was particularly involved by the golden section, and proved that it was the origins for the proportions of the human figure. He showed that the human body is built with each section in a indisputable golden proportion to all the other constituent parts. Pythagoras' discoveries of the proportions of the human figure had a amazing effect on Greek wall art. Every part of their major buildings, down to the smallest detail of beautification, was built upon this proportion. The golden section was used commonly by Leonardo Da Vinci. Note how all the important dimensions of the room and the table in Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" were centred on the golden section, which was recognized in the Renaissance period as The Divine Proportion. A golden rectangle fits so perfectly around the central figure that it is often considered the artist intentionally painted the figure to conform to those proportions. Knowing Leonardo's attraction to mathematical patterns and the Fibonacci sequence, this is fairly likely. Salvador Dalí explicitly used the golden section in his work of art, The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The dimensions of the canvas are a golden rectangle. A enormous dodecahedron, with edges in golden ratio to one another, is balanced above and behind Jesus and dominates the painting. Michelangelo's David used the same hypothesis, denoting the naval as the arithmetical epicentre of the Golden Ratio.

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