Marble Mosaic in St Mark's Basilica, Venice

The striking marble mosaic in St Mark's Basilica, Venice, is a classic example of the work of Paolo Uccello a painter and mathematician in Italy in the 15th century.

The stunning mosaic depicts a stellated dodecahedron and around this a ring of hexagonal prisms. Uccello was renowned for his work on perspectives in visual art and had an obsessive interest that would entail him sometimes studying a piece all night in an attempt to pinpoint the exact finishing point. His technique was used to promote a sense of great depth in his work, and certain paintings also illustrate this such as those that show the battle of San Romano.

Little is known of Uccello's early life up until the time he became apprenticed to Lorenzo Ghiberti, a famous sculptor of the same era. Uccello then went on to paint a number of religious frescoes and artwork for churches leading to the celebrated mosaic in St. Mark's basilica. The mathematical influences and design are immediately apparent in the symmetry of the mosaic artwork, and Uccello uses the 'golden rectangle' as part of his design. The golden rectangle is one whose lengths fit the golden ratio of one to phi. This means that when square sections are removed another golden triangle of the same proportions remains and this can be repeated indefinitely and corresponds to another mathematical wonder - the golden or 'Fibonacci' spiral.

Another effect that Uccello deployed in his work is the Droste Effect which is to create smaller versions of a larger piece and again reflects the infinite repetition of a pattern into smaller and smaller versions that so intrigued Uccello. Paolo Uccello's work is in the late Gothic style which had moved away from classic realism to a more colourful style and with a sense of pageantry. However, he developed his own distinctive style from this tradition that ultimately could not be compared to any other, and in addition he left no following school of his type of art.

To see the mosaic in St Mark's Basilica and to regard it carefully is to almost fall into the infinite as you see the sense of depth that Uccello wanted to depict, and which shows the almost self-replicating mathematical qualities of his work that have made the mosaic world famous.