Golden Ratio Explored Through Seven Art Historical Masterpieces

A slideshow published by Art & Object examines the golden ratio through seven masterpieces of art history. The golden ratio is an irrational number approximately equal to 1.618, and for artistically-minded people it may be easier to grasp visually—often referred to as the divine proportion. The golden spiral, frequently depicted and constructed within a rectangular frame, offers the simplest demonstration; while the result is technically not a true logarithmic or "golden" spiral, it is a close approximation. This is the type of process artists have used across the centuries to visualize and apply the divine proportion to their paintings. Among the examples featured is the Parthenon, dated to c. 447 BC in Athens, Greece, where historians say the golden ratio was applied. The first image in the seven-part sequence is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photographed by Guillaume Baviere. The slideshow is credited to Art & Object.