Legacy from the past: the Golden Section

A really important resource while composing a painting is the Golden Section.

It consists in a geometric construction based in a proportion in relation to  a constant division of the Golden Number 1.618 or φ (phi by Fidias) ([√5+1]/2), through which, in ancient times, it was attempted to get perfect and harmonic shapes, being also a symbol of beauty and cosmic order.

Its discovery is attributed to the pythagoreans in Greece, during the V century b.C., but we’ve got its formulation thanks to Euclid (III c. b.C.). It’s used by any stylistic movement that follows classical tradition, for example, the Renaissance but also artists like Mondrian, Seurat, Serusier, the cubists and Le Corbusier.

Leonardo da Vinci,
The Last Supper

It’s applied in all fine arts but in case of painting, this scheme helps us to find the composition’s focal point, and to place the figures and horizon and at carrying out a balanced composition.

This method stems from perfect figures, such as the square and the circle, but it’s applied to several other shapes as long as the proportions are kept.

We’ll analyze the case of the rectangle, since it’s the most used in painting.

In the image, we can see the steps we’ve got to follow. It consists in a segment divided in 2 other segments of different size. This division must be according to this rule: the proportion between the small segment’s length and the large’s one is equal to the proportion between the large one’s length and the total length. 

Carachteristically, the resulting rectangle will always have the same proportion when subdivided. 

In 1525, Dürer applied this to curves in his Golden Spiral.

Espiral de Oro(Wikipedia)

This isn’t only used in art, it also determines some factors of our routinary life: the sizes of DIN A4, canvas, TV screens and monitors, etc.

cristinadelrosso.com // cristinadelrosso.artproject@gmail.com
Sources: Smith, S. Anatomía, perspectiva, composición para el artista, Madrid, Tursen-Blume, 1996 Düchting, H. Bildkomposition. Ravensburg, Ravenburgers Verlag, 1990
personal notes.

Translation: Lorenzo Vigo
Images of the scheme: Düchting, op.cit.

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