The mathematical secrets of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia

(mappingignorance.org)

33 points | by Gedxx 7 days ago

3 comments

  • mightyham 48 minutes ago
    "Gothic cathedrals and Doric temples are mathematics in stone. Doubtless Pythagoras was the first in the Classical Culture to conceive number scientifically as the principle of a world-order of comprehensible things—as standard and as magnitude—but even before him it had found expression, as a noble arraying of sensuous-material units, in the strict canon of the statue and the Doric order of columns. The great arts are, one and all, modes of interpretation by means of limits based on number (consider, for example, the problem of space-representation in oil painting). A high mathematical endowment may, without any mathematical science whatsoever, come to fruition and full self-knowledge in technical spheres." ~ Spengler, Decline of the West
    • n4r9 12 minutes ago
      I had to put this one through Claude, but it boils down to:

      > A culture's felt sense of proportion, ratio, and spatial order manifest directly through the hands of masons and sculptors, without necessarily needing the mathematical formalism of proofs, axioms, and treatises.

      Not sure how I feel about this, as the Familia was absolutely built in a context of formalised mathematical sciences.

  • brookst 21 minutes ago
    Such a spectacular building. I could spend all day watching those color gradients move across the walls and floor.
  • huflungdung 25 minutes ago
    [dead]