A Man Paints With His Brains Not His Hands Michelanglo Living With Art by Mark

As a master of the arts, sciences, and everything in between, Leonardo da Vinci is frequently referred to equally a "Renaissance human." While the polymath is perhaps virtually well known for hisMona Lisa masterpiece, it is his scientific sketches that impressively illustrate the encyclopedic knowledge and eclectic interests that have come to define him.

The Vitruvian  Human , a belatedly 15th-century drawing, is a prime example of such piece of work. Intended to explore the idea of proportion, the piece is part work of art and part mathematical diagram, carrying the Old Principal's belief that "everything connects to everything else."

What is the Vitruvian Man?

Leonardo drew the Vitruvian Man, known likewise as "The proportions of the man body according to Vitruvius," in 1492. Rendered in pen, ink, and metalpoint on paper, the piece depicts an idealized nude male person standing within a square and a circumvolve. Ingeniously, Leonardo chose to describe the man with four legs and 4 arms, assuasive him to strike 16 poses simultaneously.

The Vitruvian Man is based onDe Architectura, a edifice guide written past Roman builder and engineerVitruvius between xxx and fifteen BC. While it is focused on compages, the treatise besides explores the human body—namely, the geometry of "perfect" proportions—which appealed to Leonardo's interest in anatomy and inspired his drawing.

"De Architectura" by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Photo: Marker Pellegrini via Wikimedia Commons CC By-SA 2.v)

What are the "perfect" proportions?

Two blocks of backwards-written text accompany the drawing. In the first, Leonardo notes that, co-ordinate to Vitruvius, these are the measurements of the ideal body:

• 4 fingers equal one palm
• four palms equal one foot
• 6 palms make one cubit
• 4 cubits equal a homo'due south pinnacle
• iv cubits equal 1 footstep
• 24 palms equal 1 man

Additionally, the starting time set of notes too specifies: "If you open your legs and then much as to decrease your height i/14 and spread and heighten your artillery till your heart fingers touch the level of the top of your caput you must know that the center of the outspread limbs will be in the omphalos and the space between the legs volition be an equilateral triangle. The length of a homo's outspread arms is equal to his peak."

In the 2d block of text, the artist describes the model torso every bit fractions:

• "From the roots of the hair to the lesser of the mentum is the tenth of a homo'southward acme"
• "From the bottom of the mentum to the top of his head is one eighth of his height"
•  "From the elevation of the breast to the top of his head will be one sixth of a man"
• "From the top of the chest to the roots of the pilus will be the 7th function of the whole man."
• "From the nipples to the meridian of the caput will be the 4th part of a man."
• "The greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the fourth function of the man."
• "From the elbow to the tip of the manus will be the 5th part of a homo"
• "From the elbow to the angle of the armpit will exist the 8th office of the homo."
• "The whole hand will be the tenth part of the man"
• "The beginning of the genitals marks the heart of the human"
• "The foot is the seventh function of the homo"
• "From the sole of the human foot to below the knee will be the fourth role of the man"
• "From below the human knee to the beginning of the genitals will be the fourth role of the homo"
• "The distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose and from the roots of the pilus to the eyebrows is, in each example the same, and similar the ear, a third of the face up"

The Vitruvian Man Today

Since 1822, the Vitruvian Man has been a role of the permanent collection of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italian republic. As it'south as well frail to be on display, the piece is rarely exhibited. Yet, even while curtained, the drawing remains a key part of their collection and, ultimately, one of the most of import works of the Italian Renaissance.

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