The above four images are taken from Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things, with quotes from Friedrich Schelling.
Below:
Cycladic vase, c. 2800-2700 BC (Pat Getz-Gentle, Ancient Art of the Cyclades)
Spiral designs from Old European pottery, 5800-5500 BC (Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess)
Classical Cucuteni vases, 4400-4200 BC (Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess)
Pot from Butmir culture, early 5th millennium BC (Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess)
Entrance stone at Newgrange, c. 3200 BC (Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess)
Cycladic ‘frying pan’, mid 3rd millennium BC (Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess)
spiral motifs are mesmerising, as they are in nature. these image-patterns must be sort of encoded in our minds...
ReplyDeleteodd but true fact: when i was a young teen, i was allowed to paint my bedroom walls. what i chose to paint on them was a freehand pattern of spirals, not quite geometric, not quite vine-like, but something in betwixt. i had been doodling such space-filling spirals since childhood. who knows whether it arose spontaneously from somewhere within, or was unconsciously imprinted/inspired by imagery seen in books or artefacts in museums that i'd seen... it proved an intensely soothing thing to look at.
Wow, I'm sure your bedroom must have been a special place. I've always had a bit of a thing for spirals too … and stars.
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