Featured in the center of the image (
above) and in center of the image
inset left is the geometrical figure known as the
small stellated dodechahedron.
I don't know that this polyhedron has any specific esoterica attached to it - apart from it's obvious relationship with the pentagram and the regular dodecahedron - and, yet, its presence in the mosaic and the print seem to hold a special significance for both artists... in spite of the fact that more than 400 years and several countries separated them.
Maurits Cornelis
(M.C.) Escher (1898-1972), was a Dutch graphic artist especially known for the mathematical figures and motifs in his work, while Italian painter,
Paolo Uccello, was not. Uccello accomplished amazing feats of perspective in his paintings, but his online oeuvre contains only one other
example of a geometric solid. And, yet, it's his polyhedron which is unquestionably the "star" of the mosaic at St. Mark's basilica... surrounded by what looks like a string of... well, sliced zucchini (but don't quote me). In any case, regardless of the vegetables, his dodecahedron is a powerful icon.
In M.C. Escher's still-life, however, the same stellated polyhedron has become an illuminated life form... or a small, extraterrestrial vehicle which has landed in a patch of earthly refuse... a broken egg, bottle, pipe, discarded tin can, etc. It seems as if the two images could not be less alike.
But, there is one continuum between Uccello's mosaic and Escher's drawing. Both images glorify the stellated dodecahedron while, at the same time, revealing its fundamental source: the pentagram.
Inset left is a great shot of Escher inking in a most amazing spiral. The full image - Sphere Surface with Fish - is below the jump.
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