The Golden Mean

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"
(John Keats…Ode on a Grecian Urn)

This beautiful expression by the great Poet John Keats is suggestive of the ‘Golden Mean’, which has been discussed, considered, and otherwise pondered over by Poets, Philosophers, Mathematicians, Artists, and others for centuries. To the ancient Greeks, the harmonious relationship of beauty and truth is a balanced proportionality, a ’golden mean’ as it were, necessary and present in a great work of art. Though Art can be appreciated on many levels,  none more so than when a painting exhibits this elusive, mysterious and intrinsic harmony. The math associated with all of this is quite interesting, for those who wish to enquire of it. For now, when you look at a painting, either your own or another’s, if you are struck by a sense of completeness, and harmonious balance, you may be observing an aspect of the ‘Golden Mean’ within.