Complex Geometrical Constructions in Renaissance Works of Art. The General Context and a Case Study in Krems
Using a methodology derived from text sources and the insights afforded by a lost method of constructing the Golden Section, the article shows how this method is integral to the composition of Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ and to the Museum Krems sculpture, Saint Vitus in a Vat. Where The Baptism of Christ draws from an astronomical diagram known as an analemma, the article shows that the original ground-plan of the Museum Krems sculpture derives from the last exercise of Piero della Francesca’s geometrical treatise, Libellus de quinque coribus regularibus. This both confirms and sheds new light on the circumstances under which the work was commissioned.