Classical Spirit

The American artist-mathematician Jay Hambridge set out to remove every element of doubt concerning whether the architects of the Parthenon (447-438 BC) Ictinus, Callicrates, and the sculptor Phidia made use of a very evolved understanding of Golden Section and root-f proportions. His analyses of plan and elevation (façade and all vertical elements), including every detail, do provide evidence of the most incredible sensitivity and intelligence.

A spontaneous, visual-intuitive grasp of harmonious proportions must enliven all mathematical formulations, give energy and direction to every design from the moment of conception. Then, when one is working through difficulties, intuition and theory may be able to establish a partnership that is at the heart of classicism, of whatever time or place. Other modalities spring from other relations between the extremes of passion and construction, chaos and geometry. The classical spirit in individuals and in certain eras vacillates somewhere near the center of these extremes; the romantic spirit hovers more to the left of center.

Writers on the art of Europe sometimes refer to a Northern mode or tradition and a Southern mode, pointing to native, almost instinctual elements in both that pre-date classicism and romanticism, as such. The Northern tradition is said to be allied to that very large cultural complex that extended in early times across the length and breadth of what is now Russia; that is, from China to Western Europe. The "Animal style," as it is referred to is linear, restless, and affirmative. It can also be aggressive, brooding, close to the zoological buff in what would seem to be its Celtic and Scandinavian offshoots. The southern or Mediterranean mode is characterized as "Humanistic," to the point of turning nature into "background" and décor. Its art is geometrical in spirit, leaning toward the ideal and the achitectonic, as in Greek art, or actualistic, as in Roman art. Its subject is humanity and the order of humanity, not humanity in heroic or pathetic combat with nature. One has only to compare Greek pottery of the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eight centuries BC with English medieval pottery, or the Parthenon with a Viking ship, to appreciate two divergent attitudes toward nature and reality . . . .