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Volume 34, Number 1, pages 087-104 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2023_1_087
THE FRACTAL CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE BRONZE AGE ART
Emil Makovicky
Crystallographer (b. Bratislava, Slovakia, 1940) Department of Geoscience and Natural Resources Management, University of Copenhagen, Østervoldgade 10, DK1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Email: emilm@ign.ku.dk
ORCID: 0000-0003-3539-8293
Abstract: Famous representational and religious bronze vessels of the blossoming Chinese Bronze Age (about 2200 – 700 BC) were made by casting molten bronze into molds composed of several ornamental panels. The latter were prepared with abstract design based on highly schematized animal face (taotie), sometimes with schematic dragon bodies added, and consisting of several orders of hook-to-full spiral elements. The largest, 1st order elements are often covered by arrays of smaller, 2nd order elements, and larger arrays of these, by 3rd order arrays. Linear and/or branched arrays of 3rd order spirals cover spaces and fields between higher order elements, as well. The three-tier design, with a semiregular distribution of different orders dictated by a compromise between the rules of abstraction and zoomorphism, unity of principles over three orders of importance, as well as maintenance of inclusivity condition, and statistical self-similarity of the design, imparts to the Chinese Bronze Age art a fractal character. This character has been preserved and even further intensified over a considerable time span.
Keywords: Chinese Bronze Age art, bronze vessels, abstract spiral-based patterns, fractal character, Anyang period of Shang dynasty.
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