The concept of "beauty", as you know, is abstract. About whether beauty has its own laws, people have been thinking for a long time. They argue on this topic to this day. But still, are there any natural, unshakable laws of beauty that would be perceived as generally accepted? Or is this concept individual ? What is harmony? Symmetry and asymmetry? We will try to tell about this and much more in this material.
The laws of beauty in the art of the ancient world
At the beginning of time, at the dawn of human society, both Egyptians and Chinese mathematically substantiated harmony using division and the ratio of segments according to the formula a / b = b / (a + b), where a is less than b. The Greeks associated harmony with the concepts of "measure" and "harmony", deducing from this the "consent of the disagreement" and the principles of organization of music and sounds. In the rounded form - the division of any value in the ratio of 62% and 38% - the number is limited to 1.62.
Golden ratio in art and architecture
Does beauty have its own laws, we can study on the example of the global history of art. The proportions of many pyramids in ancient Egypt correspond to the rule of the "golden section". This rule was also used in the manufacture of household items, jewelry, bas-reliefs (by the way, despite this, according to opinion polls, many modern people consider such proportions to be excessively long).
Leonardo da Vinci and many other artists deliberately used these "divine proportions" and relationships. Current scientists have found that the whole universe, from microcosm to galaxies, in general, corresponds to this law of beauty. Living organisms also have a golden ratio. This law is universal. Proportion is a kind of standard, matrix. And deviations from it are more likely an exception to the rules confirming the law (caused, for example, by adaptation to the environment).
Symmetry and asymmetry
Whether beauty has its own laws, we can observe also by studying the phenomenon of symmetry. This concept is found in many areas of human activity. In particular, in art and architecture. What is it?
Translation from Greek - proportionality or immutability. And also - orderliness, proportionality. These are the main characteristics of this concept. In animate and inanimate nature, this phenomenon is quite developed, and it can often be observed. A striking example is the wings of a butterfly or the design of a human face. However, in nature, symmetry is never complete, absolute. And similar parts will not coincide with one hundred percent accuracy.
In mathematics and geometry, on the contrary, this concept reaches absolute values. So, in geometry, symmetry is the ability of figures to display, which preserves their shape and properties. Roughly speaking, a figure is considered symmetrical, with a linear transformation turning into itself.
Symmetry in art
The idea of the absoluteness of linear display permeates the art of ancient Greece. Remember the strictly symmetrical forms of ancient monuments, household items (for example, Greek vases). Most clearly, this phenomenon is reflected in the ornaments of many peoples of the world. In different eras, the idea of symmetry in images - consciously or unconsciously - was used by many artists and sculptors. The uniformity of repetitions is characteristic even for oral and songwriting, since ancient times. Thus, to the question: “Does beauty have its own laws?” we can answer that one of them is symmetry. By the way, the asymmetry in the works of some artists (Picasso, Dali and some others), as an exception to the rule, only emphasizes the effect of the basic law.