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Laws of Proportion

A final explanation of the special appeal of the Golden Section ratio, or any other harmonic ratio arrived at mathematically or intuitively, has yet to be given, as far as I know. Perhaps there is no simple, easy explanation beyond the assumption that the laws of proportion are, in some strange way, inherent in visual perception. The unconscious searching for relationships that are neither so well balanced as to be dull, nor so precarious as to be irritating, are all involved to some extent. The eye quickly exhausts any area that is divided in strict symmetry. The Golden Section division is neither too difficult to grasp spontaneously nor easy to exhaust. Equilibrium is threatened, but a kind of dynamic tension arises that is curiously binding. The eye will try to coax the division back to the center of the area or, failing that, to some other "regular" position. Unequal partitioning and the back-and-forth, long-and-short rhythm of perception will join in such a way as to vitalize every square inch of the area.

[Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986.]

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