Dynamic Symmetry: The Greek Vase

Jay Hambidge

Foreword: Some twenty years ago, the writer, being impressed by the incoherence of modern design and convinced that there must exist in nature some correlating principle which could give artists a control of areas, undertook a comparative study of the bases of all design, both in nature and in art. This labor resulted in the determination of two types of symmetry or proportion, one of which possessed qualities of activity, the other of passivity. For convenience, the active type was termed dynamic symmetry, the other, static symmetry, It was found that the passive was the type which was employed most naturally by artists, either consciously or unconsciously; in fact, no design which would be recognized as such - unless, indeed, it were dynamic – would be possible without the use, in some degree, of this passive or static type. It is apparent in nature in certain crystal forms, radiolaria, diatoms, flowers and seed pods, and has been used consciously in art at several periods. […]