FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF ARTISTIC IMAGES: FROM CUBISM TO FRACTALISM

Black-and-white graphic images of great artists: Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Munch were analyzed in terms of fractal geometry. The pictures were digitized and spatial distributions of resulting ensembles of black and white pixels were characterized by their: (a) box dimension D(b), (b) information dimension D(i), and (c) mass exponent D(m). Whereas D(b) and D(i) were seen to coincide, D(m) was usually found to be somewhat higher. Plates, which can best be described as line drawings, have D = 1 at small lengths, and D = 2 at length scales commensurate with that of the plate, with a fairly narrow crossover region. Some textured images, however, are of definite fractal character: their dimensions are well-defined non-integer constants over more than two orders of magnitude of length. At present the authors refrain from discussing the role of dilation symmetry in graphic art.