The Memoir of Leonardo da Vinci - The Vitruvian Man

THE VITRUVIAN MAN

The Vitruvian man by Leonardo da Vinci is a remarkable and renowned piece of art. The main intent behind this artistry was to explore proportions. This picture, rendered in pen, ink and metalpoint on paper, is of two nude men superimposed & inscribed in a square and a circle with groin and navel being the centre of each respectively. This allows them to form 16 different poses simultaneously. That particularly telling us that the human proportions are very geometric and in harmony with the surroundings.

This mastery was inspired by a book by the Roman Architect and Engineer, Vitruvius, between 30 B.C to 15 B.C. The writing's along the top and bottom of the drawing are the measurements of an ideal human body. For example, four fingers equal one palm or four palms equal one foot etc. The Vitruvian Man sigle handedly depicts that everything connects to everything else. It being mathematical diagram and Art here.

Certain notes from the 15th Century tells us that the circle and the square has more significance than they are credited for. These notes state that those particular shapes are symbolic powers, where the circle is called, "The cosmic and the divine" and the square representing, "The earth and secular". The ancient scholars not only saw the bodily proportions of the drawing but also how humans fit into both these worlds and shaped the universe. Thus inspiring the architecural scholars to carry over this into the empire that is, Architecture.

Significance.

Architecture is a game of symmetry and so is a human body. The Vitruvian Man has been used to develop the concepts in Architecture. Size, scale, and proportions are the keys to a perfect design. The artists, Da Vinci and Vitruvius, saw the importance of proportions and symmetry in a design and came up with most best model to illustrate the correlation between spatial elements and dimensions.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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