Display: The Polyhedrists

Art and Geometry in the Sixteenth Century

This display will showcase a collection of 3D printed mathematical objects inspired by the geometric drawings of Albrecht Dürer, Wenzel Jamnitzer, Luca Pacioli, and Leonardo da Vinci.

The exhibit explores how these Renaissance masters united art, mathematics, and philosophy through geometry. Each work begins from their original polyhedral sketches, proportional diagrams, and treatises such as Pacioli’s De Divina Proportione and Dürer’s Underweysung der Messung. Using AI-assisted modeling and precision 3D printing, these two-dimensional studies are reconstructed as physical forms that reveal the mathematical imagination of the era — from stellated solids and harmonic ratios to intricate spatial symmetries. The pieces were created by Professor Lena Vaynberg.

The display will be viewable in cases at the Main Library from October 3 through November 1.

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