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NOTES ET DOCUMENTS - NOTA'S EN DOCUMENTEN 217
by Papadopoulo C~). In his doctoral thesis he advanced the theory
that the basic lay-out of most Near Eastern pietorial compositions
followed the shape of a spiral. Although, in our opinion Papadopoulo
tends to oversimplify the problem and to give too much credit to
the solution proposed by hirnselî, his theories have nothing extraordinary.
Any student in the history of art will be able to quote similar
studies dealing with occidental art (3). Even if the scientific value
of this kind of studies remains largely open to discussion they stimulate
research in one way or another.
(2) A. PAPADOPOULO, Esihélique de Pari musulman; la peinture. Thèse présentée
devant l' Université de Paris 1 le 5 juin 1971, LiIle 1972. The author daims
(part III, p. 377 sqs.) that 60,4 % of the paiutings studied by him have a spiral
as a basic structure. He Iurther distinguishes spirals with one, two, etc, windings,
but none of the spirals shown in this thesis is in fact a real spiral. AlI are freehand
drawn spiraloids with which one can prove anything and nothing.
(3) For the function of spirals in occidental artisttc compositions see c.g.
L. BEHLING, Zur Morpùoloqie und Sinndeulituj kunstqeschichllicher Phânomene,
Cologne{Vienna, 1975, especially illustrations 37, 39, 41, 43 and 45.