Pisando Arte e Matemática em Lisboa

Abstract

Motifs in one or two directions can be classified mathematically by the types of symmetries they possess, and that classification gives rise to seven frieze patterns and to seventeen wallpaper patterns. Rosettes are other type of patterns in which the repetition of the design occurs about a single point, within a limited region of the plane. Rosettes are either dihedral or cyclic, depending on the presence or absence of mirror symmetries. Many Portuguese pavements are beautiful artistic works: all the seven friezes, cyclic rosettes, dihedral rosettes and twelve of the seventeen types of wallpapers were detected in Lisbon. In this paper, we exemplify some of these artistic works, highlighting, in particular, the work in Rossio dos Olivais, carried out by Fernando Conduto. In 2014, the Ludus Association and the University of Lisbon published the Baralho de Simetrias - Calçadas de Lisboa, a deck of cards to disseminate this subject to the largest possible number of people. We also discuss that initiative.