Vitruvian Man Archetype

Leonardo Da Vinci was a famous artist, mathematician, engineer, and philosopher. Many people describe him as the perfect archetype for the man during the renaissance. Born in Vinci, Italy in 1452, Da Vinci has influenced many present day artists and is one of the most well known artists of the renaissance. During his lifetime, Da Vinci created many famous journals with anatomical drawings, inventions, and writing. One of the drawings found in his one of his many journals is the Vitruvian Man. Over time, his drawing has become one of the most well-known icons for the renaissance. Named after the first century B.C.E Roman architect Vitruvius, this drawing depicted a man with what Vitruvius described in one of his books as the ideal proportions for a man. Based off of notes from Vitruvius’s book, the drawing showed a man standing up straight with his arms spread out, on top of that pose, Da Vinci drew the man in a pose with his arms reaching slightly above his head, and his legs spread (this is usually called spread eagle). The actual drawing is shown below.

(Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man- slate.com)

The Vitruvian man was a unique

Squaring the circle with a compass and straightedge had been a problem that puzzled geometers for years. In his notes under the drawing he recognized that “if you open your legs enough that your head is lowered by one-fourteenth of your height and raise your hands enough that your extended fingers touch the line of the top of your head, know that the centre of the extended limbs will be the navel, and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle” . This excerpt alone shows that Da Vinci had an immense understanding of proportion, as well as geometry. On this page, Da Vinci also wrote the exact proportions that he used, based his own observations and the ones used in Vitruvius’s book. Da Vinci