Description
Leonardo’s Dodecahedron Keychain (in sterling silver)
Measurements: dodecahedron 2,8 cm / ring diameter 2,7 cm / total length 9 cm
“If the Universe could be represented in a geometric shape, it would be a dodecahedron“.
In the manner of the ancient Greeks and Renaissance Neoplatonists, Leonardo designed this polyhedron for a Franciscan friar, Luca Pacioli, who in his manuscript ‘De Divina Proportione’ reflected on the applications of the golden section. Leonardo created at least twenty precious tables for the first draft of the manuscript (1497) in which these complex geometric shapes were reproduced with maniacal precision.
But what does the shape of the dodecahedron express? According to Plato, to whom Pacioli’s studies were based, five geometric solids gave body to the four elements of the cosmos: the hexahedron for earth, the icosahedron for water, the octahedron for air, the tetrahedron for the fire. The dodecahedron, again according to Plato, was the sublime synthesis of the quintessence. For Leonardo, these polyhedra were the subject of profound reflections on arithmetic, Euclidean geometry, proportions, the constructive elements of the cosmos, nature, science and art.
Keychain handmade by Pestelli Creazioni
Handmade in Florence, Italy
