Leonardo da Vinci — Vitruvian Man

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Most people know the famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci showing a man in a circle. It is called Vitruvian Man. The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487

The Vitruvian man is Leonardo Da Vinci's famous diagram dividing the human body proportionately to provide the basis for an ancient measuring system. This image depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The pose with the arms straight out and the feet together is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed square. On the other hand, the “spread-eagle” pose is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed circle. According to Pythagorean tradition, the circle represented the cosmic and the divine; the square, the earthly and the secular. The square, is the natural way that humans relate to the physical world. This is why there are four directions, four seasons, and four elements. It is why my house has four sides and I am sitting on a four-legged chair while I write this on my square keyboard and read it on my square screen. The square was a symbol of the Titanic human aspect.On the other hand, anyone proposing that a man could be made to fit inside both shapes was making a metaphysical proposition: The human body wasn’t just designed according to the principles that governed the world; it was the world, in miniature.

The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.

The Vitruvian ideas, presented by Leonardo, formed the basis of Renaissance proportion theories in art and architecture. In his treatise, Vitruvius discussed that the proportions and symmetry of the human body which related to the building of temples. A human body can be symmetrically inscribed within both a circle and a square which linked the proportions of the human body with architectural planning. Vitruvian Man is Leonardo da Vinci's own reflection on human proportion and architecture, made clear through words and image. The purpose of the illustration is to bring together ideas about art, architecture, human anatomy and symmetry in one distinct and commanding image.

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