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| Vitruvian
man |
Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing with accompanying notes by Leonardo da Vinci made around the year 1490 in one of his journals. It depicts a naked male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions.
The drawing is in pen, ink, and watercolor over metalpoint and measures 34.3 x 24.5 cm. It is currently part of the collection of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
According to Leonardo's notes in the accompanying text, it was made as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described in a treatise by the Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who wrote that in the human body:
a palm is the width of four fingers
a foot is the width of four palms
a cubit is the width of six palms
a man's height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms)
a pace is four cubits
the length of man's outspread arms are equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth
of a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth
of a man's height
the distance from the hairline to the top of the breast is one-seventh
of a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the nipples is one-fourth of
a man's height
the maximum width of the shoulders is one-fourth of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is one-fifth of a man's
height
the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eight of a man's height
the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of the
length of the face
the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one-third of the length
of the face
the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the face
The rediscovery of the mathematical proportions of the human body in the
15th century by Da Vinci and others is considered one of the great achievements
leading to the Italian Renaissance.
The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, to the universe as a whole, whether by mathematical order or intelligent design, or both.
It may be noticed by examining the drawing that the combination of arm
and leg positions actually creates four different poses. 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. This illustrates
the principle that in the shift between the two poses, the apparent center
of the figure seems to move, but in reality, the navel of the figure,
which is the true center of gravity, remains motionless.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vitruvian man".