Pythagoras and the Arts of Antiquity and the European Renaissance

Saturday, November 17, 2018
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Concord Hall, 1407 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara
Presenter: Kirk B. Gradin

Pythagoras has long been recognized as one of the most brilliant and influential sages of ancient Greece, despite the fact that he wrote nothing down and few of his contemporaries wrote in detail about him. This seminar will discuss what is currently known about Pythagoras and his teaching and how recent scholarship has revealed that his impact was even broader and deeper than previously understood. Not only can Pythagorean ideas be traced in the developments of Western mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, religion, medicine and music, but also in the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. What are the ideas attributed to him and in what way are they found etched out in the underlying concepts, symbolic geometries and proportional relationships of the finest artworks of Classical and Renaissance culture?

Suggested donation of $2 per person.