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mystery in beauty


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

First i’ll quote a little bit of wikipedia so that you know, if you didn’t already, what the golden ratio is, because that’s what the subject is and it might be nice to know:

“In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.”

The golden ratio can be found in a lot of things that are considered beautiful, because it gives a certain balance that is liked by humans. It can be found in: nature, music, architecture, human body/face, art, etc.

The golden ratio was already ‘found’ by the ancient greeks, but it was only during the 19th century that they discovered that it carried a beauty that can be connected to art, architecture and nature.


Le Corbusier, a swiss-french architect, developed the Modular, an architectonic measuring system that uses the golden ratio. He used the modular for all his buildings, but he stated that he thought it was a bit sad that the golden ratio was discovered in relation to aestethics, because it took the mystery away from beauty.

The mystery of beauty appeared to be, in much scientific opinion, just the average.

I wonder what is this ‘mystery’ anyway. The beauty of ambiguity, something that keeps you wondering, and surprises you. Because at some point, caricaturing an attractive shape will result into abnormality that that con­cur­rent pref­er­ences for av­er­age­ness will out­weigh pref­er­ences for the at­trac­tive shape di­men­sion.” To put it more simp­ly, Plain Jane is not with­out her charm.

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