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The Geometry of the Last Supper

Blog

The Triangle #3

From the Geometry of the Last Supper by Raphaël Mouterde. It shows the triangle on the grid and the arc created by the rotation of the triangle's base. The arc intersects the grid and gives the height of the windows and the cornice. It is also tangent to the pediment.

“What are the chances that three points chosen at random would line up?” That was the question that came to mind as I contemplated the arc created by rotating the triangle’s base, and how precisely it fits the painting.

With the arc tangent to the pediment, its construction unfolded with ease.

📐 By placing our imaginary compass on M this time, the rotation of the triangle’s base gives us a mirror image of the arc traced in the previous post. Together, these arcs outline the familiar silhouette of a Gothic arch around the triangle.

Since this arch touches the semi-circular pediment at a tangent, it follows that a circle must have been used to draw its outer edge.

So the question is: what is the radius of that circle?

💡 The first intuition is the correct one: the pediment is defined by a circle of radius 1 (one module of the grid = 1).


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