The Vitruvian man
You may not know his name, but you’ve seen him plenty of times before. You know that naked, attractive, multi-limbed man in a square and a circle. You may even know that Leonardo da Vinci drew him. Today, I will address the following questions: Who is this Adonis? Where did the inspiration come from? And why is he more famous than naked Brad Pitt acting in Fight Club?
Who is this Adonis? The Vitruvian Man is originally known as “The proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius”. It is an iconic ink on paper drawing made by Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci in 1490, where he studies the ideal human body proportions. It contains both mirrored text and an illustration, which depicts a man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in a circle and square.
Secondly Stanford university’s website, Leonardo was inspired by the writings of ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius, who lived in the 1st century BC. In the Book III of his treatise “De architectectura”, the first concept of the Vitruvian Man emerges. When a man placed on his back with his hands and feet extended, a circle could be drawn with the center in the navel, as well as a square, since the length between the soles of the feet and the top of the head is equal to the outstretched arms. Vitruvius does not provide any images, but rather an exercise for others. And, boy there were many artists that shared the same interest of drawing a naked men in a circle.
This leads us to the next question Why is Leonardo’s Vitruvian man so famous? Well, his version is fundamentally different than the others. He was the first to form one image, by overlaying the circle and square on top of each other. This led to immense geometric and symbolic speculation, because Leonardo did not mention any relational factor between the square and the circle.
Additionally, the genius of Leonardo’s depiction is also in the superimposed body, which allows the view of 16 different poses. Thus, it resembles a multidimensional singular image that suddenly becomes holographic. Another intriguing thing is that the male genitals are the center of the square, while the navel is center of the circle.
According to Wikipedia, bad mouths say that the Vitruvian Man is Leonardo’s self portrait. Most historians believe he was an enticing young man, who had an athletic body, beautiful curly hair and enchanting personality.
In the end, Leonardo is considered to be the embodiment of the ideal man, the genius, the archetypal Renaissance man. The Vitruvian man represents his attempt to connect man and nature, while seeing the man at the center of the universe with everything measured from this point. Fellow Toastmasters, these are reasons why he exceeded Brad Pitt in Fight Club’s popularity on all categories on Google trends in 2019.
Biography
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00004-015-0247-7
- 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man#cite_note-4
3. https://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/submissions/clabaugh/history/leonardo.html
4. https://www.lagrange.edu/resources/pdf/citations/history/Measure%20of%20a%20Man.pdf
6. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci/Anatomical-studies-and-drawings
