A meander or meandros[1] (Greek: Μαίανδρος) is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Among some Italians, these patterns are known as "Greek Lines". Such a design also may be called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these terms are modern designations even though the decorative motif appears thousands of years before that culture, thousands of miles away from Greece, and among cultures that are continents away from it. Usually the term is used for motifs with straight lines and right angles and the many versions with rounded shapes are called running scrolls or, following the entomological origin of the term, may be identified as water wave motifs.
On one hand, the name "meander" recalls the twisting and turning path of the Maeander River in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) that is typical of river pathways. On another hand, as Karl Kerenyi pointed out, "the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form".[2]
Meanders are common decorative elements in Greek and Roman art. In ancient Greece they appear in many architectural friezes, and in bands on the pottery of ancient Greece from the Geometric Period onward. The design is common to the present-day in classicizing architecture, and is adopted frequently as a decorative motif for borders for many modern printed materials.
The meander is a fundamental design motif in regions far from a Hellenic orbit: labyrinthine meanders ("thunder" pattern [3]) appear in bands and as infill on Shang bronzes (c. 1600 BC - c. 1045 BC) , and many traditional buildings in and around China still bear geometric designs almost identical to meanders. Although space-filling curves have a long history in China in motifs more than 2,000 years earlier, extending back to Zhukaigou Culture (c. 2000 BC – c. 1400 BC) and Xiajiadian Culture (c. 2200 BC –1600 BC and c. c. 1000 BC -600 BC), frequently there is speculation that meanders of Greek origin may have come to China during the time of the Han Dynasty (c. 202 BC) by way of trade with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. A meander motif also appears in prehistoric Mayan design motifs in the western hemisphere, centuries before any European contacts.
What often is described as the Hellenic meander, in fact, has a pre-Greek history. It appears as space filling curves in the Ancient Near East. For example, the guilloche on the depiction of the Investiture of Zimri-Lim at Mari contains the motif.
In ancient Greece meanders were among the most important cultural symbols. Perhaps symbolizing infinity and unity, many ancient Greek temples incorporated the sign of the meander. Greek vases, especially during their Geometric Period, likely were the main reason for the widespread use of Hellenic meanders. Alternatively, very ocean-like patterns of waves also appeared in the same format as meanders, which also may be thought of as the guilloche pattern. The shield of Philip II of Macedon, conserved in the museum of Vergina, is decorated with multiple symbols of the meander. Throughout the Roman empire, meanders also are prevalent on pavement mosaics found in Roman villas, because Greek motifs often were adopted into Roman artwork and cultural traditions.
Meanders and their generalizations are used with increasing frequency in various domains of contemporary art. The painter Yang Liu, for example, has incorporated smooth versions of the traditional Greek Key (also called Sona drawing, Sand drawing, and Kolam) in many of her paintings.[4][5][6]
Gallery
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Mayan meander from Chichen Itza (Mexico) -
Geometric bowl decorated with a meander, from 730–720 BC -
A typical Attic red-figure cup with meander pattern at borders -
The meander mosaic of the tepidarium -
A classical labyrinth -
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Roman mosaic from Chedworth Roman Villa (England) -
Meanders on the façade of a building from Paris, very similar with the ones from Roman mosaics -
Border pattern from 1800–1830, with meanders in it -
Cast iron balcony decorated with meanders in Paris
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See also
Citations
- ^ The Greek term maíandros and its Latinized variant meandros are not very common outside of archaeological contexts.
- ^ Kerenyi, Dionysos: archetypal image of indestructible life (Princeton University Press) 1976:89.
- ^ See J. E. L., description of a Late Chou hou at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in "A Chinese Bronze", Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 27 (August 1929:48).
- ^ Yang Liu, "Visual art as research: Explorations with sona drawings", Leonardo, April 2010, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 129–131.
- ^ Yang Liu, "Cross-culturalism in painting: visualization via meanders", Journal of Visual Arts Practice, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, pp. 205–214.
- ^ Yang Liu, "From sona drawings to contemporary art", HYPERSEEING, Summer 2009, pp. 37–41. Published by ISAMA, The International Society for the Arts, Mathematics, and Architecture.
External links
- Illustrated Architecture Dictionary: "Fret"—a short description, with a list of links to photographs of meander designs in art and architecture