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Meander (art)

Decorative continuous line border motif

Decorative continuous line border motif

NOTOC

A meander or meandros () is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. To some Italians, these patterns are known as "Greek lines". Such a design may also be called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these terms are modern designations; this decorative motif appears much earlier and among Near and Far eastern cultures that are far from Greece. Usually the term is used for motifs with straight lines and right angles and the many versions with rounded shapes are called running scrolls or, following the etymological origin of the term, may be identified as water wave motifs.

Meaning of the name

On one hand, the name "meander" recalls the twisting and turning path of the Maeander River in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) that is typical of river pathways. On the other hand, as Karl Kerenyi pointed out, "the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form".

Decorative uses

Meanders are common decorative elements in Greek and Roman art. In ancient Greece they appear in many architectural friezes, and in bands on the pottery of ancient Greece from the Geometric period onward. The design is common to the present-day in classicizing architecture, and is adopted frequently as a decorative motif for borders for many modern printed materials.

Labyrinthine meanders in China

The meander is a fundamental design motif in regions far from a Hellenic orbit: labyrinthine meanders ("thunder" pattern ) appear in bands and as infill on Shang bronzes (), and many traditional buildings in and around China still bear geometric designs almost identical to meanders. Although space-filling curves have a long history in China in motifs more than 2,000 years earlier, extending back to Zhukaigou Culture () and Xiajiadian Culture ( and ), frequently there is speculation that meanders of Greek origin may have come to China during the time of the Han dynasty () by way of trade with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. A meander motif also appears in prehistoric Mayan design motifs in the western hemisphere, centuries before any European contacts.

Citations

Sources

References

  1. The Greek term ''maíandros'' and its Latinized variant ''meandros'' are not very common outside of archaeological contexts.
  2. Kerenyi, ''Dionysos: archetypal image of indestructible life'' (Princeton University Press) 1976:89.
  3. See J. E. L., description of a Late Chou ''hou'' at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in "A Chinese Bronze", ''Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts'' '''27''' (August 1929:48).
  4. "Temple of Apollo at Didyma".
  5. (2023). "Mystery Cults in the Ancient World". Thames & Hudson.
  6. (2013). "The Glory of Byzantium and early Christendom". Phaidon.
  7. (2013). "The Glory of Byzantium and early Christendom". Phaidon.
  8. (2018). "Perspektiven Der Textilen Künste". Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle.
  9. (2013). "The Glory of Byzantium and early Christendom". Phaidon.
  10. (2022). "A History of Western Architecture". Laurence King.
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