The Proportions of the Human Body According to Vitruvius (The Vitruvian Man);

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Title	The Proportions of the Human Body According to Vitruvius (The Vitruvian Man);
Title Alternative	Ideal Man in Circle and Square; Study of Proportions;
File Name	civ metadata CID; Civ Archive 013 correct picture; 98300561.jpg
Copyright Status/Owner	Public Domain, reviewed CJ 9/25/06
Rights (Patron Usage Instructions)	http://www.lib.byu.edu/genericnote_copyright.html
Course	HUM 201
Lecture Number	34
Professor	Green, Jon D., 1940-
Description	Leonardo da Vinci was a typical example of a “Renaissance man.” In addition to his celebrated career as a painter, sculptor and architect, he also investigated all facets of the natural world. His far-reaching curiosity is demonstrated by the prolific drawings preserved in his notebooks. Leonardo’s scientific and mathematical interests are demonstrated in the Vitruvian man sketch, which illustrates his understanding of the proportions of the human body based on the ancient Greek Golden Mean. For example, the head measured from the forehead to the chin are exactly one tenth of the total height, and the outstretched arms are as wide as the body is tall. Leonardo’s drawing closely follows the proportional canon outlined in the writings of the Classical Roman architect Vitruvius. In an attempt to take these ideas even further, Leonardo spent much of his life investigating the connections between the structure of the human body and other patterns in nature and at one point in his abundant notes he proclaimed, "Man is the model of the world." This illustration also offers insight into another problem that occupied Leonardo for much of his life, the challenge of 'squaring the circle', or drawing a circle and square that have the same area without measuring. Some argue that this diagram reveals Leonardo’s sophisticated understanding of the problem, which other mathematicians would not develop until much later. It also demonstrates one way in which Leonardo dealt with the difficulty of representing movement by superimposing one image upon another.
Creator	Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519
Country	Italy
Geographic Region	Europe
Type	Slide
Platform	Cross-Platform
File Size	227.424 KB
Language	Italian;
Genre	General
Category	Art
Keywords	Leonardo, da Vinci; Vitruvian Man; canon; Italian Renaissance;
Time Period	Italian High Renaissance
Date Range	1450 AD: 1500 AD
Date Original	ca. 1487-1509 AD
Date Digital	2005-03-29
Metadata Entry Date	2009-08-11
Quality	High
Contributors	Brigham Young University
Copyright Expiration Date	2005-09-01
Edition	Electronic reproduction;
Format	JPEG
Owning Institution	Accademia, Venice
Physical Description	13-1/2 x 9-5/8 in
Publisher Digital	Brigham Young University
Source	George L. Hersey, The Evolution of Allure: sexual selection from the Medici Venus to the incredible hulk (Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1996), 49; Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th ed., vol 2 (Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005), 618; ""Vitruvian Man"", BBC, available from Internet http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/gallery/vitruvian.shtml, accessed 19 June 2006; Carmen Bambach, Rachel Stern, and Alison Manges, ed., Leonardo da Vinci, master draftsman (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), 70.
Use Time	0:00:00

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