Stefan Arteni

The East-Central
European
Cultural Model
V

SolInvictus Press 2009

 Orpheus Charming the Animals,
Roman mosaic, Shaba Museum, Syria

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 Stefan Arteni

The East-Central European

Cultural Model
(a revised and illustrated version
of the essay published in
www.asymetria.org , 2009)
V

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God The Geometer, Bible Moralisée, 1215

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Stefan Arteni
The East-Central European Cultural Model. 5. The Way is The Quest.
[April 6, 2009]

Motto.
Future time and yesteryear
Are two sides of the same leaf,
Sees in ending the beginning
He who knows the learner’s way.
(Mihai Eminescu)

Barry Smith points to a certain comparative advantage possessed by smaller

countries in those fields not requiring significant expenditures, such as
mathematics, or in those fields where the issue of the native language is of
secondary importance, such as the visual arts. This advantage can be carried
over also to other spheres, such as philosophy, cultural anthropology and cultural
semiotics. The Pole Roman Ingarden, the Czech Jan Patocka, the Romanians
Matila Costiesco Ghyka, Lucian Blaga and Petru Ursache, the Bessarabian-
Romanian Andrei Vartic, the Estonian Yuri Lotman, are but a few examples
demonstrating how rigorous seekers for truth are always part and parcel of world
culture.

Today, the attempt to synchronize Romanian culture with the Western one, a
process imposed by an establishment insulated from a local tradition it never
understood and which it disparages, means acceptance of and synchronization
with the prevailing neo-leninist melting pot model. However, there has long been
and there still is a viable alternative model which has shown concern for cultural
diversity, a model which aims at “integrating [cultural] particularities as
differences, in a culture of difference,” as Ovidiu Hurduzeu has written, namely
the poly-contextural matrix discussed in previous papers, the transclassic
operational interplay of a heterarchy of coexisting cultural domains and of a
simultaneous plurality of interwoven recursive and permutative diversities.

Matila Costiesco Ghyka is the forerunner, especially when it comes to

investigating the Golden Mean, one of the most important members of the
Metallic Means Family. This requires a generalization of the concept of
symmetry. The modern concept of symmetry is connected with Felix Klein’s
group theory. Klein’s discoveries and his idea of symmetry can now be visualized
by using computer graphics: the beautiful constructions teetering on the brink of
chaos reflect the ancient Buddhist metaphor of Indra's net. It was about these
subjects that Matila Ghyka wrote.

We should note that we may think of visual apprehension as an extension in

many ways of Klein’s group theory: “…object recognition and categorization can
be described in terms of geometrical transformations, and will suggest a
transformational framework, based on Klein’s hierarchy of geometrical

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transformation groups... this transformational framework can be extended to
pictorial space… Klein proposed a common framework which integrates different
geometries into one general framework: His Erlangen Program defines a nested
hierarchy of transformation groups, in which a geometry is defined relative to
specific transformation groups. Geometrical properties and objects are not
absolute, but relative to transformation groups… The hierarchy of
transformations of Felix Klein’s Erlangen Program provides an integrative
framework for the study of visual perception, as well as for the history of art.”
(Markus Graf, Form and Space in Perception and Art, Presented at: The
Depictive Space of Perception. A Conference on Visual Thought, Mitteleuropa
Foundation, 2004)

The generalized concept of symmetry covers perspective: „In the perspective of

artists we find a combination of the symmetry transformations affine projection
and similitude.”
(Gyorgy Darvas, Perspective as a Symmetry Transformation,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/y581153456207m64/fulltext.pdf )

As research has demonstrated, geometric grids drawn within the golden and root
phi rectangles may create perspective space: „It seems that Brunelleschi’s
experiences with measurements and surveying while in Rome...put him in an
ideal situation to conceive of the process of perspective drawing; but even with
this in mind, I must also remain open to the possibilities that geometry (and
geometric construction), by its nature, was also a catalyst for the new way of
thinking and seeing...I believe it is important to look at the process of grid making
as possibly a key element in the development of perspective systems.”
(Mark A. Reynolds, Perspectiva Geometrica,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/h94w3683n8624758/fulltext.pdf )

An aristocratic English family, the Sitwells, had bought the ancient Montegufoni
castle situated in the centre of Tuscany. In 1922, Gino Severini was asked to
decorate a room with frescos. Severini employed combinations of the phi [Golden
Mean] theme as well as the root 4 theme. His composition schema for a 1937
mosaic in Alessandria’s Postal Palace was based on the phi theme. Le
Corbusier’s Modulor is probably the best known design based on the Golden
Mean, in celebration of which Le Corbusier created his 1955 portfolio entitled
Poème de L’Angle Droit.

"Beauty is fitness expressed.," said Ghyca. "Inspiration, even passion is indeed

necessary for creative art, but the knowledge of the Science of Space, of the
Theory of Proportions, far from narrowing the creative power of the artist, opens
for him an infinite variety of choices within the realm of symphonic composition."
Originality, therefore, does not suggest the modern notion of an erasure of
tradition as a breakthrough, but rather the sense of utilizing the highest potential
of a millennial legacy of traditioning which has recourse to preformulated,
prefabricated building blocks as it relies, on the one hand, on recurring patterns

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within a creative-formulaic continuum and, on the other hand, on the paradoxical
combination of contingency and necessity. Let us attentively listen to Constantin
Brancusi’s words: “I walk the questing path. We all find ourselves at the end of a
great age. And it is necessary to go back to the beginning of all things; and to
find again all that has been lost…Simplicity is solved complexity…By means of
art, you will be disjoined from yourself. Measure and the golden number will bring
you closer to the absolute…Art may redeem the world.”

Mathematicians have continued to build on the firm foundation established by

Ghyka, providing a synthesis between Chaos Theory (Complexity), Fractal
Geometry, and the Golden Mean. The Golden Mean is more than just a device
used by artists: “… This ratio acts as an optimised probability operator, (a
differential equation like an oscillating binary switch), whenever we observe the
quasi-periodic evolution of a dynamical system…The Golden Mean then, is an
archetypal fractal in that it preserves its relationship with itself…It is ‘analogia’
exemplified…”
(Nigel Reading, Dynamical Symmetries: Autopoietic Architecture,
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Starship/9201/phimega/phimega.html )

Because of the simplicity of this family of quadratic equations, the Mettalic Means
find various applications in science and in discovering the roads that lead to
chaos: “Some of the relatives of the Golden Mean have been used by physicists
in their latest researches trying to analyze the behavior of non-linear dynamical
systems in going from periodicity to quasi-periodicity… The members of the MMF
[Mettalic Means Family] are intrinsically related with the onset from a periodic
dynamics to a quasi-periodic dynamics, with the transition from order to chaos
and with time irreversibility, as proved by Ilya Prigogine and M. S. El Naschie.”
(Vera W. de Spinadel, The Family of Metallic Means,
www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/spinadel/index.html ; see also Vera W. de Spinadel,
From the Golden Mean to Chaos, 1998, Editorial Nueva Librería, Buenos Aires,
Argentina.)

Ghyka’s work is fundamental to an understanding of symbolic dynamics: “…each

system of proportions gives rise to a sequence of 1's and 0's referred to in the
study of dynamical systems as symbolic dynamics. Proportional systems based
on phi, root 2, and root 3 were the principal systems used to create the buildings
and designs of antiquity… Root 2 and root 3 geometries also have connections
to the symmetry groups of the plane… “ (Jay Kappraff, Systems of Proportion in
Design and Architecture and Their Relationship to Dynamical Systems Theory,
http://members.tripod.com/vismath/kappraff/kap1.htm )

Louis H. Kauffman develops a context for self-referential forms. He summarizes

one of his articles thus: “This paper develops a context for the well-known
Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...) in terms of self-referential forms and
a basis for mathematics in terms of distinctions that is harmonious with

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G. Spencer-Brown's Laws of Form and Heinz von Foerster's notion of an
eigenform. The paper begins with a new characterization of the infinite
decomposition of a rectangle into squares that is characteristic of the golden
rectangle. The paper discusses key reentry forms that include the Fibonacci
form, and the paper ends with a discussion of the structure of the ‘Fibonacci
anyons’ a bit of mathematical physics that relates to the quantum theory of the
self-interaction of the marked state of a distinction.”
(Louis H. Kauffman, Fibonacci Form and Beyond, Forma, Vol. 19, No. 4,
pp. 315-334, 2004)

Let us recall Constantin Brancusi. Let us hark back to his saying: “…with my
newness, I hail from something ancient…” Brancusi said he was searching for
“the fundational core, the noema.” [The original text was temelia temeiului,
noima; the Romanian noima derives from the Greek noema.] Noema is the
self-referentially achieved mental schema of a system. Theoria, Greek for
contemplation, tied to hesychasm and theosis, meant initially a pilgrimage, a
circular journey to new and more comprehensive insight into one’s rootedness.
T.S.Elliot wrote:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

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 Each unique geometrical object is somehow or other connected to
properties of the regular icosahedron.
(Felix Klein)

A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE. Circa 2nd Century AD. The die may have
been used for divination. Deep blue-green in color, the large twenty-sided die is
incised with a distinct symbol on each of its faces. 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm.) wide.
Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the
Roman period. Sold at Christie’s, December 11, 2003.

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Matila Ghyka, Essai sur Le Rythme, 1938

Matila Ghyka, Le Nombre d’Or, 1931

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 Fibonacci (Leonardo Pisano)

Relationship between the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Rectangle

[diagram by Alex Mabini]

[Diagram by Charles Bouleau]

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 Piero della Francesca, composition within a root 2 rectangle

Subdivision of the root 2 rectangle into figures, with a ratio of three, embedded
perspective, and Alberti’s musical ratio 4/6/9

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 Piero della Francesca… has linked elements of the receding architecture to a
spatially suggestive two-dimensional surface matrix, the geometry of which also
provides key points for the perspective construction…The pattern…derived from
an octagon, is the basis of the elaborate floor pattern within the palace where
Christ is standing. It was used in earlier paintings by Gaddi and Cione, and
contains the root 2 proportions that control the composition of the painting.
(From Richard Talbot, "Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus
Network Journal, vol. 5 no. 1, Spring 2003,
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html )

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 15th century Russian Icon

Construction within a root 2 rectangle (Karyl M. Knee,

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/knee )

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 Vesica Pisces

Speyer Evangelistary, 1220

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 Byzantine Icon, composition within a root phi rectangle

Anonymous Siena master, composition within a root 4 rectangle

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Giovanni Francesco da Rimini, composition within a 1 + √2 rectangle

Niccoló di Buonaccorso, composition within a phi rectangle

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 "One-point" (parallel) perspective grid using harmonic and geometric
progressions (From Mark Reynolds,Geometric and Harmonic Means and
Progressions, Nexus Network Journal, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 2001,
http://www.nexusjournal.com/GA-v3n4.htm )

Perspective grid within the golden section rectangle

(from Mark A. Reynolds, "Perspectiva Geometrica", Nexus Network Journal, vol.
5 no. 1, Spring 2003, http://www.nexusjournal.com/GA-v5n1.html )

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 Inverted perspective
For the representation of rectangular foreground objects 'inverted perspective' is the common rule
in pre-Renaissance painting… Although it contradicts scientific perspective and seems wrong to
modern eyes, there is a basis for it in experience. The fact that we do not easily see convergence
in foreground objects but rather parallelism or even divergence of parallels can easily be verified
by observation… The divergent construction is abundantly exemplified in Roman mosaics and
11th-century illuminated manuscripts. ( http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep-17 )

Roman mosaics

Codex Vyssegradensis, 11th century (probably originated in the scriptorium of the Monastery of
St. Emmeram in Regensburg )

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 Hermann Weyl
Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl is one of the major explorers of group theory, a
formal method for analyzing abstract and physical systems in which symmetry is
present. The general idea of similarity symmetry and the possibility for its
mathematical treatment was discussed in a monograph by H. Weyl (Symmetry,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1952). The Fibonnaci sequence linked to
the golden section and the logarithmic spiral are connected to the similarity
symmetry groups described by A.V. Shubnikov (1960).

( from www.spirasolaris.ca )

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 Roman mosaic, Chedworth, England

You cannot apply mathemathics as long as words still becloud reality.

Symmetry, as wide or narrow as you may define its meaning, is one idea by
which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order,
beauty, and perfection.

We are left with our symbols.

(Hermann Weyl)

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Similarity symmetry groups play a special role in fine art works using central
perspective:

Felix Vallotton

Jacques Villon

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Domenico Ghirlandaio Il Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi)

Meyndert Hobbema

Jacques Villon

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 Metzinger and the 4-dimensional coordinate system

The 3-dimensional co-ordinate system

Illustration from Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions by Esprit

Jouffret, page 153 [from Wikipedia]. Maurice Princet introduced Jouffret’s book
to the cubists. The Traité popularizes Poincaré's hypercube and other complex
polyhedra in four dimensions (the fourth dimension is another spatial dimension)
and their projections onto a two-dimensional surface. Jean Metzinger remained
close to Princet. In the latter stages of his career, Metzinger moved away from
cubism.

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Jean Metzinger

Jean Metzinger

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Jean Metzinger

Jean Metzinger

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Jean Metzinger

Jean Metzinger

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The exploration of form

Paul Sérusier

Paul Sérusier

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 Paul Sérusier

Paul Sérusier, mural, St Julien church, Chateauneuf-du-faou

Paul Sérusier

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Juan Gris

Juan Gris

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Juan Gris

Juan Gris

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Juan Gris

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Juan Gris

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Gino Severini

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Gino Severini

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Gino Severini, Montegufoni frescos

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Gino Severini, Montegufoni frescos, Combinations of the circle or phi theme
(Carlo Cresti,Geometria per Montegufoni,
in Gino Severini, Electa, Firenze, 1983)

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Gino Severini, Montegufoni frescos, root 4 theme: square and double square
(Carlo Cresti, Geometria per Montegufoni,
in Gino Severini, Electa, Firenze, 1983)

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Gino Severini, Montegufoni frescos, root 4 theme: double square (Carlo Cresti,
Geometria per Montegufoni, in Gino Severini, Electa, Firenze, 1983)

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Gino Severini

Gino Severini

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 Gino Severini

Gino Severini, Composition sur une courbe algebrique

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Le Corbusier, Sketch for Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors
(Le Corbusier referred to this design as an iconostase, or iconostasis)

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Le Poème de l'Angle droit, Tériade, Paris, 1955,
lithographs in colors

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Le Corbusier, Modulor, lithograph in colors, 1950

Le Corbusier, study for Le Poème de l'Angle droit

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Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

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Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon, Metz cathedral windows

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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Jacques Villon

Jacques Villon

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 Albert Gleizes
(In 1924 Gleizes published La Peinture et Ses Lois. His system was
based on transformational geometry – translations and rotations.)

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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Albert Gleizes

Albert Gleizes

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 Serge Poliakoff, 1951
(Alexis Poliakoff, the painter’s son, wrote in his notes: “I find again my father’s
painting which - before hiding it for ever – reveals its golden number, key to all
his compositions to come”.)

Serge Poliakoff

Serge Poliakoff

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Serge Poliakoff

Serge Poliakoff

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Serge Poliakoff

Serge Poliakoff

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 Serge Poliakoff
(from Carolle Gagnon-Marier, Serge Poliakoff et le Nombre d’Or, Vie des Arts,
XXV, 102, 1981)

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Stefan Arteni

Stefan Arteni

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Stefan Arteni

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Stefan Arteni

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Stefan Arteni

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Stefan Arteni

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