Until recently I would never have believed that maths and art are linked, however after a workshop in discovering maths I now know this to be true.

The Fibonacci sequence is a series of famous numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34… But what is it that is important about these numbers and how can they be used in art work?

In 1509, Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli published Divina Proportione, a treatise on a number that is now widely known as the “Golden Ratio.”

In an equation form, it looks like this:

a/b = (a+b)/a = 1.6180339887498948420 …

This ratio, symbolised by Phi (Φ) appears a lot in nature and mathematics.

Here are a few examples of the golden ratio being used in nature and in architecture

After the workshop I started looking at things in my house and thinking about how aesthetically pleasing they look, was the golden ratio used to create these?

One thing that struck me was a set of Davinci paintings on the wall that I have always thought looked quite strange, I began to wonder if the body was drawn in proportion to the golden ratio?

 

This drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions, however after research it is concluded that the drawing does not follow the golden ratio.