CHAPTER 4
FORMSAND STRUCTURES
THE MATHEMATICS OF ART
THE ENDLESS SPIRAL
Leonardo had a lifelong fascination with patterns, and one of his favorites was the spiral. Even when it’s drawn on a piece of paper, a spiral, like a spring, suggests movement and growth.
Leonardo was interested in the way that many plants branch in a spiraling pattern, that others, like ferns, grow as spirals, that seashells develop as spirals, and that human curls fall in spirals.
He referred to the spiral patterns of water and the wind as “curved motion.” And he was intrigued with the whirlpools or eddies in streams—spirals that never stopped moving and yet always remained in the same place. These observations appear in his designs for an “aerial screw”—a helicopter ...
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