'Divina Proportione'

Tuesday 25th November 2025 at 18:00

The third seminar in the Music for the Eyes series investigates the matrix of connections between music, mathematics, and visual harmony.

Taking its title from the influential Renaissance treatise by Luca Pacioli, this lecture explores how the ‘divine ratios’ of music have shaped enduring ideals of beauty, order, and proportion in the plastic arts. Drawing on the writings of Pythagoras and Boethius - who saw musical harmony as a reflection of a greater, cosmic order - we see how musical proportions influenced later art and architecture alike. In a virtual wander through the streets and museums of Florence, we interpret the harmonic geometry of Florence’s iconic Renaissance buildings.

We also consider the legacy of the Greek sculptor Polykleitos, who used musical ratios to define ideal human proportions, and explore how similar principles emerge in the works of Florentine masters such as Brunelleschi, Donatello and Leonardo da Vinci.