The Vitruvian Man While we were in Venice last, month DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man was on display in the Gallerie dell’Accademia which was practically next to our hotel. I had seen this piece once before at the National Gallery in D.C. as it was part of the Circa 1492 Exhibit. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to be able to see it again. It is actually quite small - about the size of a piece of printer paper.

I have become quite interested in portrai- ture and the human form so I am fascinated by the proportions of the human body. DaVinci was actually more scientist than artist so his insight is invaluable to artists who are not so scientific.

The information below is from Wikipedia. I hope you take time to read especially the proportion excerpt.

The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius Pollio. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simulta- neously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only occasionally. 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. Other artists had attempted to depict this concept, with less success. Leonardo’s drawing is traditionally named in honour of the architect.

This image exemplifies the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo’s keen interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo’s attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, “Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe.”

According to Leonardo’s preview in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was made as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described in Vitruvius: ·“,palmus autem habet quattuor digitos,” · a · palm is the width of four fingers · a · foot is the width of four palms (i.e., 12 inches) · a · cubit is the width of six palms · a · pace is four cubits · a man’s height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms) · “, erit eaque mensura ad manas pansas,” · the length of a man’s outspread arms (arm span) is equal to his height · the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch chin is one-tenth of a man’s height the circumference of a circle described therefrom. · the distance from the top of the head to the bottom And just as the human body yields a circular of the chin is one-eighth of a man’s height outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. · the distance from the bottom of the neck to the For if we measure the distance from the soles of the hairline is one-sixth of a man’s height feet to the top of the head, and then apply that · the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will man’s height be found to be the same as the height, as in the case · the distance from the middle of the chest to the top of plane surfaces which are perfectly square. of the head is a quarter of a man’s height The multiple viewpoint that set in with Romanticism has · the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is convinced us that there is no such thing as a universal set of a quarter of a man’s height proportions for the human body. The field of anthropometry · the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one- was created in order to describe individual variations. eighth of a man’s height Vitruvius’ statements may be interpreted as statements about · the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man’s height average proportions. Vitruvius takes pains to give a precise · the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose mathematical definition of what he means by saying that the is one-third of the length of the head navel is the center of the body, but other definitions lead to · the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is different results; for example, the center of mass of the human one-third of the length of the face body depends on the position of the limbs, and in a standing · the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the posture is typically about 10 cm lower than the navel, near face the top of the hip bones. · the length of a man’s foot is one-sixth of his height Leonardo is clearly illustrating Vitruvius’ De architectura Note that Leonardo’s drawing combines a careful reading of 3.1.2-3 which reads: the ancient text with his own observation of actual human bodies. In drawing the circle and square he correctly ob- For the human body is so designed by nature that serves that the square cannot have the same center as the the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and circle[6], the navel, but is somewhat lower in the anatomy. the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the This adjustment is the innovative part of Leonardo’s drawing whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip and what distinguishes it from earlier illustrations. He also of the middle finger is just the same; the head from departs from Vitruvius by drawing the arms raised to a the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck position in which the fingertips are level with the top of the and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest head, rather than Vitruvius’s much lower angle, in which the roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the arms form lines passing through the navel. breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the the bottom of the chin to the under side of the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, of nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under the universe as a whole. side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is It may be noticed by examining the drawing that the combina- also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of tion of arm and leg positions actually creates sixteen different the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the poses. The pose with the arms straight out and the feet forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is together is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed square. also one fourth. The other members, too, have their On the other hand, the “spread-eagle” pose is seen to be own symmetrical proportions, and it was by inscribed in the superimposed circle. employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless The drawing was in the collection of Giuseppe Bossi, who renown. illustrated it in his monograph on Leonardo’s The Last Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to Supper, Del Cenacolo di Leonardo Da Vinci libri quattro be the greatest harmony in the symmetrical relations (1810). The following year he excerpted the section of his of the different parts to the general magnitude of the monograph concerned with the Vitruvian Man and published whole. Then again, in the human body the central it as Delle opinioni di Leonardo da Vinci intorno alla point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed simmetria de’Corpi Umani (1811), with a dedication to his flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, friend Antonio Canova. and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the After Bossi’s death in 1815 the Vitruvian Man was acquired with the bulk of his drawings by the Accademia.