Portrait of Luca Pacioli and Disciple: A New, Mathematical Look

Abstract

Although the famous Portrait of Luca Pacioli and Disciple is a favorite illustration in surveys of Renaissance history and the history of science and mathematics, little is known about it. A detailed analysis of its contents and cultural context reveals that rather than a simple double portrait, the painting celebrated the achievements of mathematical humanists and their education program. The analytic skills that they championed were based on the visual language of Euclidean geometry. Not surprisingly, the diagrams of the Elements as printed by Erhard Ratdolt (Venice, 1482) are the focus of the picture and its complex iconography.