The ancient Egyptians were the first to use mathematics in art. It seems almost certain that they ascribed magical properties to the golden section and used it, when designing their great pyramids.

Pythagoras (560-480 BC), the Greek geometer, was especially interested in the golden section, and proved that it was the basis for the proportions of the human figure. He showed that the human body is built with each part in a definite golden proportion to all the other parts.

The Parthenon was perhaps the best example of a mathematical approach to art.

Medieval builders of churches and cathedrals approached the design aspect of their buildings similarly to Greeks. A good geometric structure was their aim. Inside and out, their buildings were intricate constructions, based on the golden section.

In the 16th Century, Luca Pacioli (1445-1514), geometer and a friend of the great Renaissance painters, rediscovered the "golden secret". His publication, devoted to the number phi, Divina Proportione, was illustrated by no less an artist than a mathematician.

Leonardo da Vinci (1451-1519) had displayed an ardent interest in the mathematics of art and nature. Same as Pythagoras, he had concluded a close study of the human figure and had shown how all of its parts were interrelated, based on the golden section proportion.

The subsequent contemporary research for grammar of art inevitably led to the golden section usage in abstract art. La Parade, painted in distinguishing multi-dotted style of the French neo-impressionist Seurat (1859-1891), contains numerous examples of golden proportions.

The Sacrament of the Last Supper by Salvador Dali (1904-1989) is painted inside a golden rectangle. Golden proportions were used, when positioning the figures. Part of an enormous dodecahedron floats above the table. The polyhedron consists of 12 regular pentagons and has fundamental golden section connections

The 20th Century architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) developed a scale of proportions, which he called Le Modulor. It was based on the structure of a human body, whose height is divided into a golden section commencing at the navel. The same proportion can be seen in his modern flats. Le Corbusier felt that human life was "comforted" by mathematics.