Botticelli & the Spiral

Cestello Annunciation, 1489–90, Sandro Botticelli, Geometry: 2021, DS.

 

Above is a Christmas greeting card of sorts, composed of Sandro Botticelli's enigmatic Annunciation* and my own minor embellishment (meant to dazzle you, of course). And, while I'm not saying Botticelli actually used the pentagonal Golden Spiral to design his masterpiece, it does somewhat explain Mary's unusual posture.  She seems to be holding the geometrical apparatus up with both hands!

It doesn't explain the most important relationship in the image, however... that is, the odd relationship between Gabriel's and Mary's hands... but, perhaps an additional spiral might tell us something.

 

Put the two together and we have this:

 

Note the diagonal the two triangles have in common; when extended, it pierces Mary's hand. It's as if Gabriel was throwing her a curve-ball and she caught it!

Hmmm... but is that the end of the analysis....?

Alas, no...

As excited as I was when I found the spirals in Botticelli's painting - although I've found Golden Triangles and nested pentagons by two other Italian painters from that period, and Golden rectangular Spirals in paintings by Dutch artists from a later time period, I've yet to find a pentagonal spiral **- I have yet to find documented evidence that the earlier artists actually knew about the pentagonal spiral. But, then, it occurred to me that while Botticelli may not have known about the Golden Spiral, he might still have used a spiral to design his image.

 

The spiral I used here is one of a series of what I refer to as Lune Spirals, algorithmic spirals constructed with a series of interlocking lunes. (Something I'll address later in the series). Note that almost every major volume in the image follows the spiral fairly closely... leading us to what we might expect: the magical relationship between the angel's and the Virgin's hands. Below are two other orientations. In the former, the spiral seems to emanate from Gabriel's little finger; it's like he's zapping her with some cosmic wave.

 

So, the operative question seems to be, did Botticelli literally use the spiral in his initial drawings of the Annunciation or didn't he?. While it's intriguing to think that he might have, I think it's actually more fascinating if he didn't. What a precise eye for design he must have had... and an almost faultless instinct of where and how to lay his lines. Which reminds me of what I once referred to as a "form language," another sort of (universal & intuitive)) "language of the birds" tied in some mysterious way to mathematics.

And, that's about all I have for you this Christmas Eve... after a long hiatus I was forced to take.  As it stands, the formal series I promised won't appear till the beginning of the new year. But, regardless,  I hope you can find your own personal bit of holiday "gold" in the coming days... a deeper joy than all the holiday hype pretends to offer.

Perhaps an angel can help you on your way... from Australia, Lisa Gerrard (a woman who sings "in tongues").

For more Lisa (and more angels), try here and here.

While adding the last Gerrard Link, I found this video (posted below) by the person who had uploaded Gerrard's amazing performance- Arseniy Lapin - on his video page. Lapin both painted the images and created the music. Magical.

Merry Christmas!

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* Previously discussed in this angel post.)

** Correction. I did find one other Italian painter who may have utilized the pentagonal Golden Spiral... and in much the same way as is evident in Botticelli's Annunciation.