Meander (art)

For other uses, see Meander (disambiguation).

Meander pavement in the streets of Rhodes

A meander or meandros^[1] is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Such a design is also called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these are modern designations. On the one hand, the name "meander" recalls the twisting and turning path of the Maeander River in Asia Minor, and on the other hand, as Karl Kerenyi pointed out, "the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form".^[2] Among some Italians, these patterns are known as Greek Lines.

Meander infill inscribed on a Shang Dynasty bronze you

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 onwards. The design is common to the present-day in classicizing architecture. The meander is a fundamental design motif in regions far from a Hellenic orbit: labyrinthine meanders ("thunder" pattern^[3]) 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. The pattern also appears on the quintessential New York City paper coffee cup, the Anthora. They were among the most important symbols in ancient Greece; they, perhaps, symbolized infinity and unity; many ancient Greek temples incorporated the sign of the meander. Greek vases, especially during their Geometric Period, were likely the genesis for the widespread use of meanders; alternatively, very ocean-like patterns of waves also appeared in the same format as meanders, which can also be thought of as the guilloche pattern. The shield of Philip II of Macedon, conserved in the museum of Vergina, is decorated with multiple symbols of the meander.

Notes

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).

External links

• Illustrated Architecture Dictionary: Fret (a short description, with a list of links to photographs of meander designs in art and architecture)