Simetria : a medida e o belo

Abstract

If today it covers a wide spectrum of definitions, the concept of symmetry has, in its origin (summetria in Greek and later symmetria in Latin), a more unitary meaning: that of proportionality. In a mathematical context it will refer to a measure common to two quantities (commensurability), in an evaluative context it will refer to the correct proportion (evaluation of the beauty). Giora Hon and Bernard R. Goldstein thus consider two fundamental trajectories in the use of the concept of symmetry: a mathematics and an aesthetics; to which two different meanings correspond – the relationship between two entities and the property of a single whole. And, despite the respective changes in each of these meanings – while the first remained static for centuries, the second underwent various changes from the 15th century onwards – the distinction remains until the beginning of the 19th century. It is this first meaning of proportionality that will take on great prominence in Vitruvius. And it is between these two worlds – mathematical and aesthetic – that architecture has always existed. This paper aims to be a contribution to an analysis of the relationship between the concept of symmetry and the theory and practice of architecture and of how these two realities have simultaneously influenced each other. A second analysis is also proposed as a contribution: how, over time, the concept of symmetry, which is transversal to the various disciplines, can be presented with a leading thread that facilitates the understanding of both the different influences between architecture and other disciplines and the approach, or distance, from architecture to the various views of the world.