The Vitruvian Man

THE VITRUVIAN MAN

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        The Vitruvian Man is drawn by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490. The meaning of “The Vitruvian Man” is the proportions of the human body according to the Vitruvius Pollio, an ancient Roman architect. Vitruvius Pollis is the pioneer in the area of the proportions of the human body. He explains the importance for understanding the human body proportion with the precise measurements and correlate in geometrical relationships aspect in his book, Book III of De Architetura. Vitruvius argued that the ideal relationship between buildings and human beings is the matter of proportion.

Vitruvius’s study on human proportions is continued by many great scholars including Leonardo da Vinci. The sketch of The Vitruvian Man is aspired by the work of the architect Vitruvius. Leonardo made some adjustments on the sketch which is the circle and square image overlaid above of each other to form single image. He also point out that ‘If you open the legs so as to reduce the stature by one-fourteenth and open and raise your arms so that the middle fingers touch the line through the top of the head, know that the center of the extremities of the outspread limbs will be the umbilicus, and the space between the legs will make and equilateral triangle’ (Accademia, Venice). He explained the shifting of the center of magnitude without a corresponding change of center normal gravity.

Although there are differences between the Leonardo’s opinion and Vitruvius’s, the primary idea of the human body proportion by Vitruvius initiated Leonardo to continue his study and help Leonardo to develop the study of human anatomy.

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