A Unique Art Form: The Friezes of Pirgí

In the village of Pirgi, on the Greek island of Chios, the facades of hundreds of buildings are completely covered with gray and white friezes. Circles, squares, triangles and rhomboids are used to create a lively geometry, ranging from the straightforward to the complex, to give each house its dist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Leonardo (Oxford) 2004-01, Vol.37 (3), p.235-242
Main Authors: James, Alice V., James, David A., Kalisperis, Loukas N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Architecture
Artisans
Cultural anthropology
Decorative arts
Design
Geometry
Houses
Refugees
Rotation
Symmetry
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In the village of Pirgi, on the Greek island of Chios, the facades of hundreds of buildings are completely covered with gray and white friezes. Circles, squares, triangles and rhomboids are used to create a lively geometry, ranging from the straightforward to the complex, to give each house its distinctive identity, its own unique face to display to the world. While analyzing the frieze designs, the authors discovered that the frieze artists intuitively obey a unique set of color-reversing rules. The goal of the project was to explain this powerful art form and to discover the essential mathematical structure underlying these color-reversing friezes.
ISSN:0024-094X
1530-9282