Abstract:
The author presents the speech in honor of his paternal grandfather, Silpa Bhirasri.
- AN OLD PROBLEM: The subject of discussion is the variety of artistic styles used in the representation of the human figure. One wonders what are the invariant elements which, by preserving themselves through stylistic transformations, guarantee the recognizability of the subject. A comparison between stylistic variety in art and topological transformation in mathematics is proposed. The hypothesis that justifies this comparison is that the artistic and mathematical forms, although distinct and different, share a common perceptual and sensorial memory of space.
- ANCIENT BODIES: The speech addresses the issue of the styles of the Ancient Art in the West. After recalling the centrality of the Classic canon, the paper gives examples of different styles, of Geometric type, which will be recovered and used by Modern Art.
- PARALLEL TIMES: The speech provides some examples of dialogue between Ancient and Modern Art. Some works by the writer are introduced, whose style follows from the topic discussed.
- IS ART ENOUGH IN ITSELF? : Some comparisons are made between artistic and mathematical forms. The artistic transformation of the figure into geometric variants is compared with the homeomorphic transformation of graph theory and with the dialectic curved line - straight line in infinitesimal calculus.
- FROM BODY TO SCULPTURE: Finally, the speech describes a research by Viviani, in which an ancient Greek statue is subjected to a systematic process of stylistic variation.