Cristian Ungureanu Typologies of Compositional Engines in European Painting

The birth of civilization involved, at any stage of human history, adopting an attitude and
a way of thinking that was analytical and geometric in nature when doing a visual rendering
depicting the inner or outer reality of the human experience. Depending on the degree of
understanding of the transcendent dimension of existence, the concept of reality swung between
the extremes of possibilities of fulfilling the human condition, each extreme having its benefits
and disadvantages. Reaching or just positioning ones self towards one of the many avenues of
development1 presupposes, in a way, the assimilation of the other (always and anywhere it was
unanimously accepted that

existence is a school, with prizes, repeaters, mediocre people,

professors, programs designed for every grade or level of development, test papers and final
exams).
Put in the position of continuing the civilization of the ancient Greeks, the civilization of
our times has unilaterally focused on the manifested world, to discover, on the eve of the third
millennium after Christ, that the smallest observable structures reflect the properties of the larger
ones. At the deepest levels of microcosmic matter, only the dynamic energy configurations are
observable, configurations whose movement is independent from the known laws of physics
(Newtonian mechanics). What is interesting is that the visual representations of the contemporary
quantum mechanics phenomena observed in giant particle accelerators are similar to the theories
that try to explain the macro configuration of the universe in which we live, with the exception
of some inexplicable interventions through binary logic. On the other hand, if they are reduced to
signs and graphic symbols, the most recent findings made in the quest for understanding matter
at the quantum level, prove to be identical projections of the visual signs of very old
civilizations, signs and symbols that tried to unveil and explain the same aspects of the origin
and meaning of universe and the experience of life. The point, circle or spiral have always
represented the symbolic expression of the forms of manifestation of the Principle, and the
square and all the geometrical forms derived from it are to be found in all the defining aspects of
the material world. A system of three orthogonal axes represented, in any place or period of
history, the three-dimensional nature of the universe in which we live and the presence of forces

Evolution/Involution

or laws that generate, in an intelligent, organized and harmonious manner, all the forms of
existence.
In the old Buddhist stupas, the six arm cross was traced in the middle of the room whose
base was a square, the central pillar representing the vertical dimension of the cross 2. Today we
speak of minimalism, land-art or post-minimalism as being original artistic trends pertaining to
the artistic thinking of our times, and what is overlooked is that the postdiluvian era had begun
with a grand masterpiece of minimalistic art, the Pyramid of Cheops 3. What we wish to highlight
is the quantity (and quality) of geometric and symbolic information necessary to conceiving and
making such a masterpiece of prehistoric art. The rediscovery of the symbolic meanings with
which the people of old defined numbers will certainly represent a necessary and well regarded
process in our quest of accumulating knowledge, a knowledge that in our times is only
accustomed to seeing and understanding digits.
The geometric studies weve made on the methods of construction learned by closely
observing a number of Byzantine icons, western pictural compositions, sculptures or
architectural projects from the European cultural space, have highlighted the existence of a
permanent characteristic of geometric thinking, which has conditioned and guided the formal and
symbolic making of art works. The practice of direct analysis has structured our opinion stating
that the use of geometry in painting, sculpture and architecture is a science and an art on its own,
just as effective and necessary as the practice of preparing the canvases, the wooden panels or the
complex mixtures of chemicals used for making Flemish varnish. It is very likely that these
notions of sacred geometry, canonical in its immutable character, are part of the hidden heritage
of the artist, the so called secrets of the arts. The sectioning into specific types of artists and other
historically contextualized factors from eras preceding Impressionism and the industrial
revolutions, explains the necessity of hiding this data and its disappearance from the modern
practice of designing a painting, thus this phenomena has caused the projection of an enigmatic
aura on the meaning and value of this type of geometric science at the level of contemporary
human knowledge. From this perspective, the process of detachment from the traditional artistic
practices is entirely explainable although the use of these practices has always been present and
potentially active and effective. Cubism, constructivism, the supremacy and geometric rigor from
the later compositions of Dali or the 70s minimalism, are only some of the manifestations of
2
3

Rne Gunon Symbols of the sacred science, Humanitas p.h, Bucureti, 1997, p.253
Matila Ghyka-The esthetics and mysticism of the number, Meridiane p.h., Bucureti

mathematical thinking in art always fused with science, philosophy and the different levels of
theological thinking in the millennia that passed. What is certain is that from a historical
perspective, the fundamental data of sacred geometric is found, in equal measure, in preColumbian America, in the decorative arts of the Druids and Celts, in the cultures of Asia Minor
and the Mediterranean basin, in India, China, Japan or other ancestral tribal cultures from the
heart of Africa or from Australia. From the perspective of the spirit that defines us today (that of
gaining space through a permanent and accelerated pull towards minimalistic, geometric and
ergonomic forms), the rediscovery of esthetic and symbolic properties of geometric practices
from art tradition represent an endless platform for creativity, maybe even a solution for
overcoming the identity crisis of contemporary art, in the way in which it is seen and molded
from a transdisciplinary4 perspective. These practices of geometric construction and their
symbolic, theological and metaphysical foundations, are perfectly capable of being integrated as
direct applications in all types of contemporary visual media, as long as they are carefully
studied in all their complexities.
To help the systematic rediscovery of traditional practices of compositional organization
of the space in a work of art, we made a classification of the main geometrical models that have
been used as a base model for European painting, with numerous examples. To begin with, we
catalogued the main categories of rectangles frequently used in establishing the pictural support
beams (the ratios of these rectangles having exquisite and harmonious properties L/l= 1,27;
1,33; 1,41; 1,5; 1,61; 1,73 etc). Also, along with a detailed study on the harmonious structure of
the rectangle (segments which unite its sides, diagonals of squares obtained by dividing the ratios
of the sides, the golden section of the sides, etc), we identified some construction models of the
circular compositional framework derived from the model of the Sephirot Tree of the rectangle
(graphic and symbolic element with a key role in Jewish mysticism), the main formal prototype
of the European visual culture, used in obtaining a series of harmonious subdivisions of the sides
and surfaces of paintings. We have developed our research pattern on the basis of numerous case
studies, being guided by a series of drawings of compositional geometrical constructions
designed by some of the big names in European painting (Rafael, Durer, etc) and the results of
this process of reconstruction of visual geometric tradition have been structured and presented in
4

To understand the enormous potential of the doctrine of transdisciplinarity, in the hopes of a possible solution to
the multitude of crisis that threaten the very existence of the current civilization, we recommend reading the book
Transdisciplinarity: Manifest by French philosopher and physicist Basarab Nicolescu.

my doctorate thesis, which was made at the Nation Academy of Arts in Bucharest (2012), under
the guidance of prof. univ. dr. Ioan Stendl.
Organizing the data gathered into categories has naturally led me to elaborate some
typologies of visual engines, whose characteristics are defined by the number of primary focal
points, their placing in the painting, fresco and bas-relief or by the convergence point both in a
visual but also in a symbolic and conceptual way. The most prevalent visual engine is the one
with a single center (mono-core, if we were to adopt the technical terminology of the digital
industry), which is positioned, in most analyzed cases, in the center of the superior side of the
rectangle (or of the semicircle, when the panting is designed on a papa daltare type panel).
This point converges with the tip and the origin of the Sephirot Tree that corresponds to the
paintings rectangle and to the series of other trees pertaining to the harmonious subdivisions of
this rectangle. An exemplary description of this point, devoid of attributes pertaining to the
manifested world, can be found at the beginning of the Kether chapter in Umberto Ecos5
Focaults Pendulum.
To illustrate these researches, we present the analysis of the typology of the mono-core
visual engine consisting of several sequences extracted from the geometric analysis of the
composition The Marriage of the Virgin (1504) by Raphael. The conceptual center of the work,
produced on a panel of pala daltare type with the proportions of the sides of a square and a
half (L/l=1,5), is found in the zenith of the semicircle that symbolizes, clearly, the celestial
sphere. The dome of the temple, reflection in our world of the celestial sphere, has a diameter
equal to one-third of the sky (painting width) and this is a direct reference to all types of triads,
including those specific to the Christian doctrine6. The perspective lines of the pavement are
focused in several close vanishing points that oscillate between the base of the central gate of the
temple and the horizon as to give an illusory enhancement to the distance to the final plan of our
5

So, not only towards earth is my glance pointed at, but up there too, where the mystery of
absolute movement is. The Pendulum told me that, everything is in motion, the globe, the
solar system, the nebulae, the black holes and all the sons born out of the great cosmic
emanation, from the first aeons to the most viscous matter, a single point remained, a pivot,
pylon, ideal support, making the universe move around it. And now I was one with this
supreme experience, I, who after all was moving along with everything, but could see Him,
the Non-mover, the Rock, the Safety, the extraordinarily luminous darkness that is not a
body, that has no face, form, weight, quantity or quality, that does not see, hear or have any
other senses, that is not in once place, time or space, that is not soul, intelligence,
imagination, opinion, number, order, measure, substance, eternity, that is not tenebrous,
that is not light or error or truth. (Umberto Eco, Focaults Pendulum, Pntica p.h, Constsanta,
1991, p. 11.)
6
See Rene Guenon- The Great Triad, Herald p.h., Bucuresti, 2005

world and also to give a discrete ascending impulse to the visual journey of understanding the
painting. The semicircular superior form cancels the inherent tensions of the rectangle corners,
amplifying, simultaneously, the static-telluric effects of the base of the painting. Along with the
visual meaning of the perspective lines of the horizontal plane, the sides guide the viewing of the
entire assembly ... from High to High, the asymptotic sense of motion of each work of art, as
was stated, five hundred years later, by an important Italian conceptual artist 7. The intersection
plan of the two circles, which gives the shape of the panel and separates the complementary
registries of the painting (mundane and celestial), is positioned tangent to the top of the heads of
the eleven characters in the forefront (the twelfth, just as needed in visual and symbolic economy
of the composition, being invested with a profane ritual action and with a totally different
position, which eliminates the monotony of the sinusoidal stances). The three relevant categories
of Sephirot trees and the zigzag paths of the corresponding lightning, that descent from the
center of the dome-crown (Kether), fix the centers of visual and symbolic interest of the groups
of characters and the levels of the worlds that succeeded on the vertical architecture of the
temple. Quasi-generally approached both in the Eastern as well as in the Western painting, the
process of expansion of the sephirot tree structures (by passing from the four intersected circles
with a radius to three expanded circles, is mentioned in the painted paths, offering and
amplifying the expansive feature of the stage, on one hand and to force the presence of the two
poles of the painting (the highest in the canopy and the inferior negative for the base of the
world).

Gino de Dominicis (1947-1998)

Fig.1. Rafael Sanzio The Marriage of the Virgin (1504)

The space of the median center marks the third pole corresponding to the reflection plan
of the two worlds the surface of the waters through which the Heaven is reflected on Earth to
fulfill the sacred rite of the priest, the visual pivot of the entire composition.
*
The second type of composition engine used by the traditional European painters is the
one with two focal points (dual-core) and the example used for this is the analysis given in the
manuscript pages known under the name of God as Geometer
From the oldest times and in all traditions of the world, the circle and the sphere have
symbolized the sky, and the square and its three-dimensional extension, the cube, have
symbolized the earth. At the conversion point between the circle and the earth there is the gate
towards our world. Philosophers, mystics and mathematicians have named it squaring the circle.
Plato said There is no beauty without measure, and Aristotle stated that Beauty lies in
measure and order. For Pythagoras everything is ordered by number. The mathematic
structure of the universe, the laws of the ratios and proportions, the golden ratio or the golden
section, give birth to a sentiment of accomplishment and clarity. Isaac of Syria thought that
Measure makes all things beautiful. An ancient or medieval artist was not only a good painter,
sculptor or architect but, also, a good and passionate geometer, with knowledge of the principles
of metaphysical tradition, a mystic spirit, an alchemist. The 12 th century miniature known under
the name of God as Geometer, displays the indisputable characteristics of an art work made by
a genius, attributes which highlight the qualities and symbolic meanings of the image. But, the
goal of our study is one of rediscovery of the internal geometric structure utilized by the French
monk in the making of his painting, a system which gravitates and develops around the two
circles, clearly marked, at the level of the aureole pertaining to the sole Character of the
composition and the universe created by Him using the compass. The precise numeric ratios,
obtained by the symmetrical expansion of these two circles, unveils the place and significance of
all the elements in the analyzed miniature.
Thirsty and curious as is any artist who doesnt fall asleep shortly after the light is turned
off, I started to drink water after others as a friend says. In this case (and not only) we dont
even know the name of the French monk who began to make illustrations to a Bible, convinced
that God created the Universe and Its numerous laws on the basis of the numerical ratio between
circles and spheres.

Fig.1. God as Geometer, French gothic miniature, The Bible moralise, 13th century detail
It is very likely that the medieval monk also heard the music of the spheres while he was trying
to enclose the circles into squares (which resemble so much to the circles in length and size that
you almost believe that they are equal to each other, if it hadnt been for the irrationality of ).
This reminds one of the character from Richard Linklaters movie Waking Life, who was
concerned with ...not just Eternity, but Infinity, but also of the contemporary astrophysicist
Stephen Hawking who said that we are going to discover the thinking of God when the unified
theory of the six main laws that govern our jar with stars will be discovered. Just as his physicist
friend, contemporary with us, the French monk, whos mystical and unknown to us, was
interested in the nature of God and he marked it simply by using a circle8 around the head of the
Single Character (who more likely resembles Christ rather than the Old man with beard and long
white hair - but this is a too strong water, which I miss .. but I do not know if I can have a drink
of it). In the lower circle (just one and a half times larger than the circle of Thinking) is our
Universe (as if the monk looked at Juan Miro when he drew the Universe), and if we induce
them a movement of expansion until each of them doubles (Fig. 2), we find that they are
perfectly tangent into a immobile point on the axis mundi, in which God is holding a compass,
point which is also projected onto us, in the middle of the Universe, a middle that makes us
lose our minds, since we saw with our own eyes through the Hubble telescope that the middle is
8

aureole, nimbus (lat.)

everywhere, in every point ... Not to mention that in the middle of Gods circle of thought
there is a point that is even more immobile, if my friend allows it, even if hes not yet
consenting to drinking the water

Fig.2. God as Geometer the first doubling of the aureole circles and of the Universe
Fig.3. God as Geometer the second doubling of the aureole circles and of the Universe

And if we double the circles once again (Fig 3), we will see that the big Universe (in pink
where life should only be this way) is tangent to the small blue circle of Gods Thinking from the
Beginning. It is as if the small circle would spin the large and pink Universe, into a vision that I
wouldnt venture considering it only mechanistic... This aspect of doubling doesnt hold true,
because, from a conceptual standpoint or from one that relates to the teachings of the primordial

Tradition which came down to us in the form of myths and revealed religions, the circle of the
expansion of the Universe cant go beyond the point that is immobile and without attributes,
from which all things came, including the Ideas and their manifestations (see Fig. 4). Therefore,
the large circle that belongs to the Universe can only expand until it reaches the centre of the
aureole and the Thinking of God which is always the centre but also the circumference, will
encompass everything that is below or above, in the expansion of His embrace. If we are willing
to accept that the limit of the expansion of circle (or sphere) that represents our world is itself the
point of origin of the concept (until it reaches a diameter of 5/10 1/2 respectively), then neither
the distention of the circle of Gods Thinking will not go farther than the maximum extension of
the Universe (diameter 1). His Thinking surely will not stop from expanding, but what comes
next doesnt concern us directly When the white circle of our Universe is at the parameters set
by the French monk in his Gothic miniature (3/20 out of 1), the white circle of Gods Thinking
(7/20 out of 1), tangent to the circle belonging to our world, would be the ideal prototype of that
which generates us by reflecting itself and, because it is larger in this intermediate phase of
becoming our world and the affirmation of God (manifested but also hidden to us), it becomes
a representation of the dictum found in Tabula Smaragdina: Therefore the small world is
created in the likeness of the great universe9.
The same thing is also stated by Robert Fludd10 in his Dies Microcosmicus Nox
Microcosmica diagram, drawing in which the surface of the waters is itself the horizontal plane
of the diameter of the universal sphere (respecting the proportions and measurements of the
Human), spread out between Ortus et Occasus, Sunrise and Sunset- realm with favourable
conditions of the emergence of life. It is worthy of mentioning that the series of concentric
circles that correspond to the expansion of our world is positioned slightly to the left of the
vertical axis on which the sole centre of Gods Thinking can be found, and, therefore, He pushes
our world with His left hand, on a spiraled trajectory (just as the prehistoric cave drawings and
the current crop circles tell us) which starts from the centre of the aureole and always ends on
the orbit from the centre of the maximum expansion of the Thinking, so that we can get
centered too, and axis mundi to become one with axis Deus. It is rather funny, but also very
serious, the fact that God rolled up his left sleeve until He reached the surface of the waters (the
blue horizontal line placed on the top of our would) so that He wouldnt wet his superior clothing
9

H. Trismegistus- Corpus Hermeticum, Editura Herald, Bucureti, 2007, p.11

Robert Fludd- (1574-1637), english astrologist, mathematician, cosmologist and cabbalist

10

with our water, in this ineffable and wonderful action, of which the anonymous monk speaks of,
but also astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. In this final sequence of the cycle of expansions
corresponding to the birth of our Universe, the circle of Gods Thinking has increased its radius
ten times compared to the unity circle (One, measurement of All) of the aureole (yellow, small),
fact which sends us immediately towards the cosmogonical doctrine but also towards
Pythagorean metaphysics, whose roots are in ancient Egypt, according to the teachings
pertaining to area along the Mediterranean Sea.

Fig.4. God as Geometer the final expansion of the circles of the aureole and of the Universe .
Fig.5. Robert Fludd- Dies Microcosmicus Nox Microcosmica

.
To further explain the image in question, I have positioned another two points on the
diameter of the circle that constitutes the vertical axis of Gods Thinking, when this circle
embraces the maximum of possibilities of expansions of the circle corresponding to our
Universe. All the authorities in the field of history which managed to systematically put on
display the fundamental data concerning the primordial tradition reflected in different religious
and metaphysical traditions of the old world, talk about a three-part structure of the
manifestation of God and His Creation. Just so we can stay in the spiritual realm of the

anonymous author of the manuscript page which represents our subject matter of study and
meditation, we are reminded that the Christian Trinity has pictural characteristics which propel it
in an exceptional position in the framework of all the other types of sacred triads.11 The series of
three colored dots, placed at the same distance from one another on the vertical diameter of the
big circle in the diagram, brings to mind the chromatic symbolism of the Christian Trinity (The
Father blue, The Son red and the Holy Ghost green) just as we currently find it in the Holy
Trinity icon belonging to the Russian monk Andrei Rubliov (around 1425).

Fig.7. God as Geometer the final expansion of the aureole circles and of the Universe

The points represent the center of the three identical circles, divided into ten equal
subdivisions, just like the model of the central circle (with the center in the blue point), resulted
from the ratio of successive growth of the aureole circles and of the Universe. Starting from the
hypothesis that the tree states of the Trinity are manifested in equal measure and belong to the
same Source (same blue center of the middle circle, representing the Father), we induced a
movement of dilation, moving further away on the vertical line of the circles corresponding to
the Son (red) and Holy Ghost (green), until they become equal and tangent to the circle of the
11

Rene Guenon, The Great Triad, Herald p.h., Bucureti, 2005

Father (which undergoes the same expansion, keeping Its Center immutable). The model of the
intersection of two equal circles with six subdivisions offered by theosophist G.R.S.Mead

12

in

the first publication of the translation of one of the oldest Christian manuscripts, was the source
of inspiration for the geometric model proposed in the analysis of the manuscript pages
belonging to the French monk. Equally, the study done by philosopher and physicist Basarab
Nicolaescu on the cosmogony pertaining to Jacob Boehmes13 philosophy, has proven that some
realities of contemporary scientific thinking have been inferred by mystics and thinkers from
centuries predating the birth of modernity (toroidal energetic structures- Fig 8). Diagrams such as
those of medieval alchemists or those of Jacob Boehme can be found, identical in their symbolic
and organizing principle, in the practice of the organization and dynamization of visual and
musical compositions belonging to the artists from the same cultural period. Notions such as
levels of reality, the discontinuity principle or the included third, are put forth and theorized by
illustrious physicists focused on the metaphysical intuition, were meditation platforms for
spiritual navigators from all times and religions. The necessity of identifying a third element
among the pairs of the great metaphysical, psychic and spiritual antagonistic forces which govern
the worlds has always been an innate reflex for all the spirits creating religions and unveiling
ideas, and the level of supreme Reality, inspired and rigorously named the Hidden Third by
Basarab Nicolaescu, has always been described in an allusive and poetic manner in the
traditional metaphysics as being the Source of all the other levels of reality, always intangible
and incognizant, not only at our level of reality (the only one with which us, already postmodern,
still identify with in a scientific way) but also the higher ones, in the order of spiritual
becoming.

12

G.R.S.Mead- autor al primei traduceri n limba englez a manuscrisului cretin copt Pistis Sophia (sec.II-IV
e.n.), publicate in revista teosofic Lucifer (1920, vol. VI, martie-august 1890); liceniat la Oxford n matematic,
limbi antice i arte plastice, G.R.S.Mead a ilustrat propria traducere cu o serie de diagrame care reflect, n cheie
specific geometriei sacre, secvene ale ale apariiei ierarhiilor spirituale i ale naterii universului manifestat.

13

Basarab Nicolescu, Science, Meaning, & Evolution: The Cosmology of Jakob Boehme ,
Cartea Romneasc publishing, Bucharest, 2007

Fig.8. Jacob Boehme - Representation through drawing/diagram of his cosmogony in Vierzig Fragen von der
Seele or Forty Questions of the Soul (1620).

The prototype of the orthodox icon of the Transfiguration (Fig. 9), presents the
conflict between the homogenized cosmic forces which are supposed to have transformed
everything into a unique, monolithic model, provided that the differentiation forces (also just as
necessary) didnt oppose them. The overwhelming prevalence of one of these categories of
forces, presupposed the emergence of a catastrophic scenario, but the equilibrium is constantly
maintained by the third category of forces, which is superior to the plane of manifestation of the

previous ones and congregate, in a paradoxical way, the attributes of the other two. Not by
chance, Christ is clothed in the symbolic White, the optical mixture of Moses Green with the
dominant Red of Elijahs clothes.

Fig.9. Andrei Rubliov- The Transfiguration, around 1405. The sephirotic Tree of 8/15 out of 1- width of the
painted rectangle (L/l = 1,27 , the rectangle of the pyramid), is the central element of the pictural composition
framework of the icon, in simple form (when it borders the circle of Praise of Jesus) but also in a more extended
toroidal form (4/5, when it marks the circular contour of the characters that flank the Praising Moses and
Elijah)

The middle circle (corresponding to the Father) is the one that gave birth to the other two
and, according the logic of traditional oriental doctrines but also to some theorists of modern
astrophysics, it is possible that everything that was emanated (seen and unseen) will come back
to the Origin (Aleksandr Friedmann), following the rhythm of the great cyclical breathing of
Brahman, of which many spoke of including the old saints, the Hindu Rishi or the enigmatic
Tamil Patanjali, considered as a sort of Einstein of the spiritual science and whose Yoga Sutras
are placed two centuries before Christ. In geometrical fashion, the meeting of the three specific

attributes of the three aspects of the Divine Trinity are displayed one after another if we were to
believe Gioacchino dal Fiore, the medieval Italian mystic who divided the Testamental history in
three great successive periods, corresponding to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. What is
certain and what fits best, from the visual standards of our geometric model, is this approach of
successive and equal distribution of the two categories of circles corresponding to the Son (at
first) and to the Holy Ghost (secondly) above the circles of the Father (Fig 11).

Fig.10.Raffaello Sanzio- The Transfiguration, 1520. In his last composition, Raffaello unutilized a geometrical
pattern articulated from the same successions of circular structures utilized by the Russian monk Andrei Rubliov a
century before him. The sketch made in sepia for this evangelical scene (drawing which now belongs to the British
Museum London and is catalogued as a fantasy drawing of the master of composition from the Italian
renaissance) is an anagram of the pattern utilized in the final painting

Fig.11. The two categories of vertical bridging, of the group of superior circles (with the red center which descends,
sequences a and b) and inferior respectively (with the green center, rising, sequence c, until the overlapping of the
blue center)

The two extreme categories of circles go down and up respectively, until they overlap and
identify with the circles and the center of the Father (blue) and the discontinuity between the two
vertical movements is placed right at the center of our world, which is born by their intersection
with the circles of the Father, at which they return at the same time as the two hundred and one
white points which circumscribe the arches of all the intersections between the circles, from
being tangent (one point, blue) to the final overlapping. The process of intersecting of the circles
of the Son with the circles of the Father generates a rhombus of thirty six points (34 white, one
red- fused together at the end of the descent with the blue one- and another green point) and the
internal circles of the Son and Holy Ghost are yet again tangent and equal with the one of the
Father (blue) which descends, concentric, into our world and unites them, in order to remake
the script of the Trinity from the beginning.

The ascend of the circles corresponding to the Holy Ghost carries forward the process of
downsizing of the circles tangent subdivisions and raises the surface of the waters towards the
Source from which everything came. Their intersections with the ones of the Father (with which
the Son is already merged) will generate the other eighty five points of the great final rhombus
(80 white and five blue, because the Father is always the Center but also the circumference)
which will total 121 points of interaction. The following sequences of our analysis are inspired
and derived from the six circular subdivision diagrams of G.R.S. Mead, attached to the
translation from 1920 of the manuscript Pistis Sophia, diagrams which have their origin most
likely in Sumer (Egypt-Greece), where the sexagesimal 14 numeral system was in use, system that
is very alike the Hindu mandalas or those pertaining to Tibetan Buddhism. The polarizations of
the circular subdivisions at the one and unique Center or at the six orthogonal correspondents of
it on the circumference of the spherical space described by the embrace of the threedimensional expansion of the Father, remind us of the visual projections of other laws of physics
regarding the refraction of light but also of the pyramids or the crosses of the Druids, Celts or
Templars. And if the spheres colored in RGB of the Trinity from the beginnings of the world
speak of the uncreated light seen and theorized by the orthodox mystic Priests, the centrifugal
polarized diagrams, colored in primary and secondary shades of the chromatic spectrum, tell us
the story of the birth of world dear to us (Fig.12), which broadcasts corpuscular and wavy

14

See Fig.6

Fig.12.The topographical definition of the space populated by the 121 points resulted by the intersections of the
three great categories of circles.

signals, since the first second of the Big Bang, through the vast intergalactic fields webbed, here
and there, with the edgeless voids of the black holes and warmed by discrete variations of the
quantum microwaves left behind from the beginnings, which roam the vacuum between the
stars. The first complex and stable compositions of molecular structures that are supposed to
have appeared from the great cosmic soup of the beginnings of the universe, have evolved, so
demonstrates in the 70 mathematician John Conway in his model entitled Game of Life, until
they gained the ability to duplicate or to give birth to new forms and even living beings, through
the creative and unpredictable force of the free will. At the same thing, the fact that the birth of
the Universe was a quantum event, have meditated the anonymous French monk and
astrophysicist Steven Hawking, the difference being that the latter dodges to address
scientifically the crucial and evident importance of the necessity of placing the initial model in
which the Game of Life must be configured for it to be able to generate complex forms, selfduplication, life and free will, model which must be just as complex and finely tuned as the

constants that define the six fundamental forces, fixed just like in a laboratory with high
precision instruments. But by whom?

Fig.13. The sequences of pyramidal defining of the six directions of the three-dimensional space (which gain
different symbolic characteristics when they are lectured from a two-dimensional perspective, the one of generating
the space from two simultaneous sources, located inside the circle but also on the circumference of the great Circle)

This analysis of the Gothic miniature of the 12th century, known under the name of God as
Geometer, is part of a wider range of studies that proposes a foray in the history of the millennial
European art, in the search for the hidden compositional formulas of the great Oriental and
Westerner European masters. Symbolically named Pages of the diary, Cristian Ungureanus
studies and images evoke the atmosphere of the geometrical drawings and studies, which artists
of the past used to create in order to conceive the compositional and symbolic anatomies of
their future paintings. The rediscovery and enhancement of the standards, canons or constructive
techniques of the pictorial space used by the masters of the traditional periods in art history,
could be a viable alternative to the identity crisis that defines the contemporary art.
The third type of visual engine analyzed is the one with three active compositional
centers (triple-core) and it is illustrated by the analysis of the painting The Creation and

Expulsion from Paradise, Giovanni di Paolo (1425) (Fig. 7a). The three active centers of the
visual engine are marked with different degrees of intensity. The created Universe (the structure
of concentric circles which contain the Celestial Paradise) could represent the key to
understanding and analyzing the geometry of the ensemble, while the other two elements are the
circles of the aureole. Doubled nine times with the same equal ratio equal to its radius, the circle
of the aureole of God reaches the middle horizontal plane of the universe of concentric circular
levels and becomes tangent to the smaller circle of the aureole of the angel, circle which is equal
in radius as the one pertaining to the Celestial Paradise (our homeland). This aspect of equality of
measure of the created universe and of the celestial world is highlighted in the composition by
the strong emphasis of the circle traced in red, the one at the bottom of the Celestial Paradise
from the created universe, point in which the expansion of the aureole of the angel reaches the
high nucleus of creation. Continuing the possibilities of expansion of each of the corresponding
configurations of the three levels of Creation, we can observe the equality of the number of
circles of the created world through the linking of concentric circles and those of the expansion
of the angels aureole (14 levels), different from the Celestial Paradise which is tangent and
rotated and is pivoting on the aureole of God, but it also aligned with the center on the
expansion of the divine circumference, as opposed to the circles of the angels which move
tangent to the bottom of the expansion of the divine aureole. In this stage of universal becoming,
the Celestial Paradise has direct contact with the center but also with the great circumference of
the manifestation of God. A possible symbolic understanding (in a theological manner) of this
would be that in which the angel (unusual from a representation standpoint, unclothed) is
accomplishing the mission of expelling the primordial couple from the area of high spheres
and highlighting, through his nudity, the drama of the post-paradise human condition. But,
maybe the centrifugal trajectory of this line, which is share by both the Celestial Paradise and the
angelic area, was only a mere necessity stemmed from the need of a journey of becoming, the
one that was supposed to bring the forefathers of humanity next to the four rivers of the earthly
Paradise, where the vesica piscis of the Celestial paradise and the world of the angel is, at the
opposite pole of the aureole of God, in order to fix, orthogonally, the end of the migration of
the Great Expulsion and to recreate the Celestial Paradise, somewhere or Earth, in the hope for a
return on the line that unites the intersected circles of the Celestial Paradise and the world of
the angel. The golden vertical sections (right), highlight the border of the Celestial Paradise, and

the fixating squares of the smaller sides onto the larger sides of the painting, along with their
diagonals (Fig. 7b) mark the visual routes of the pictural ensemble of the painting.
In the most optimistic interpretation of this picture, the gesture of the angel could be
considered one of calling, a warning to turn back from the road which takes us further away from
home and Creator.
As it is one of the prerogatives of the cultural navigator, the artist and reader who buys
and consumes these books which ingrain concepts and form opinions, I affirm that it is incorrect,
inopportune and even risky, especially now in the era of digital communication, not to open up to
a transdisciplinary vision on the problem of knowledge, in the way enunciated by French
physicist and philosopher, of Romanian origin, Basarab Nicolaescu. The exhaustive fixation on
the data of a single specialization can only lead to chopped statements regarding certain truths,
even some of the most evident ones. Just as it is affirmed in the Transdisciplinary15 manifesto,
the break through the isolation imposed by the monochromatic knowledge of the fundamental
problems proves to be the only solution for overcoming the cultural identity crisis of the current
era and for averting the imminent collapse of our postindustrial civilization.

15

Basarab Nicolescu, Transdisciplinarity (manifest), Polirom publishing house, Iai, 1999

Fig.7a. Giovanni di Paolo - Creation and Expulsion from Paradise (1445)

Fig. 7b. Giovanni di Paolo - Creation and Expulsion from Paradise (1445)