ABSTRACT
Mathematics makes mathematicians and in June we think of Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar, mathematician and mathematical author, who died in June 1517. The famous portrait of him by Jacopo de’Barbari tells us not only how he looked but takes us to a scene from his life. A persistent and recurrent interest in the rather innocuous objects over many centuries resulted in many developments in mathematics. The divine creator, a demiurge therefore imposes a mathematical order on the creation of the universe by modeling it on these perfect solids: Tetrahedron is used for fire, octahedron for air, icosahedron for water, and cube for earth. Of course that triangle then, makes the basis for the construction of the sides of a cube, and is important for that polyhedron. The thing is, the images, the knowledge, and the ways of construction were lost for centuries, until they were first again studied by the Italian painter and mathematician, Piero della Francesca.
