page_title: Recursion
section_title: In art
hierarchical_section_title: Recursion / In art
caption_attribution_description: The first original matryoshka
context_page_description: Recursion occurs when a thing is defined in terms of itself or of its type. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in mathematics and computer science, where a function being defined is applied within its own definition. While this apparently defines an infinite number of instances, it is often done in such a way that no infinite loop or infinite chain of references can occur.
context_section_description: The Russian Doll or Matryoshka doll is a physical artistic example of the recursive concept.
  Recursion has been used in paintings since Giotto's Stefaneschi Triptych, made in 1320. Its central panel  contains the kneeling figure of Cardinal Stefaneschi, holding up the triptych itself as an offering.
  M. C. Escher's Print Gallery (1956) is a print which depicts a distorted city containing a gallery which recursively contains the picture, and so ad infinitum.
caption: Recursive dolls: the original set of Matryoshka dolls by Zvyozdochkin and Malyutin, 1892
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