The Vitruvian Man, Italian: Le proporzioni del corpo umano secondo Vitruvio or simply

L'Uomo Vitruviano [lwmo vitruvjano], is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490.

[1]
It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing,
which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a man in two superimposed positions with his arms
and legs apart and inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called
the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is kept in the Gabinetto dei
disegni e stampe of the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice, Italy, under reference 228. Like
most works on paper, it is displayed to the public only occasionally.[2][3]
The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described
by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius
described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical
orders of architecture. Vitruvius determined that the ideal body should be eight heads high.
Leonardo's drawing is traditionally named in honor of the architect.
Contents

1 Subject and title

2 Evidence of collaboration

3 Derivative works

4 See also

5 Notes

6 References

7 Sources

8 External links

Subject and title

This image demonstrates the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the
perfect example of Leonardo's deep understanding of proportion. In addition, this picture
represents a cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia
Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he
had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del
minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body
to be an analogy for the workings of the universe."
According to Leonardo's preview in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was
made as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described in Vitruvius. The
text is in two parts, above[a] and below[b] the image.

The first paragraph of the upper part reports Vitruvius: "Vetruvio, architect, puts in his work
on architecture that the measurements of man are in nature distributed in this manner, that is:

a palm is four fingers

a foot is four palms

a cubit is six palms

four cubits make a man

a pace is four cubits

a man is 24 palms

and these measurements are in his buildings". The second paragraph reads: "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".
The lower section of text gives these proportions:

the length of the outspread arms is equal to the height of a man

from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of the height of a
man

from below the chin to the top of the head is one-eighth of the height of a
man

from above the chest to the top of the head is one-sixth of the height of a
man

from above the chest to the hairline is one-seventh of the height of a man.

the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of the height of a man.

from the breasts to the top of the head is a quarter of the height of a man.

the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is a quarter of the
height of a man.

the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of the height of a
man.

the length of the hand is one-tenth of the height of a man.

the root of the penis is at half the height of a man.

the foot is one-seventh of the height of a man.

from below the foot to below the knee is a quarter of the height of a man.

from below the knee to the root of the penis is a quarter of the height of a
man.

the distances from below the chin to the nose and the eyebrows and the
hairline are equal to the ears and to one-third of the face.

The points determining these proportions are marked with lines on the drawing. Below the
drawing itself is a single line equal to a side of the square and divided into four cubits, of
which the outer two are divided into six palms each, two of which have the mirror-text
annotation "palmi"; the outermost two palms are divided into four fingers each, and are each
annotated "diti".
Leonardo is clearly illustrating Vitruvius' De architectura 3.1.2-3 which reads:
For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the
forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand
from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the
crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest
roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a
fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the
under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a
line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a
third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of
the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The other members,
too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing them that the famous
painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless renown.
Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to be the greatest harmony in the
symmetrical relations of the different parts to the general magnitude of the whole. Then
again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat
on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel,
the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle
described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square
figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the
top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be
found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square.
[4]

Leonardo's drawing combines a careful reading of the ancient text with his own observation
of actual human bodies. In drawing the circle and square he correctly observes that the square
cannot have the same centre as the circle,[5] the navel, but is somewhat lower in the anatomy.
This adjustment is the innovative part of Leonardo's drawing and what distinguishes it from

earlier illustrations. He also departs from Vitruvius by drawing the arms raised to a position
in which the fingertips are level with the top of the head, rather than Vitruvius's much lower
angle, in which the arms form lines passing through the navel.
The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of the human
body, and by extension, of the universe as a whole.[6]
It may be noticed by examining the drawing that the combination of arm and leg positions
actually creates sixteen different poses. The pose with the arms straight out and the feet
together is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed square. On the other hand, the "spreadeagle" pose is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed circle.
The drawing was purchased from Gaudenzio de' Pagave by Giuseppe Bossi,[7] who described,
discussed and illustrated it in his monograph on Leonardo's The Last Supper, Del Cenacolo
di Leonardo da Vinci libri quattro (1810).[8] The following year he excerpted the section of
his monograph concerned with the Vitruvian Man and published it as Delle opinioni di
Leonardo da Vinci intorno alla simmetria de'Corpi Umani (1811), with a dedication to his
friend Antonio Canova.[9]
After Bossi's death in 1815 the Vitruvian Man was acquired in 1822, along with a number of
his drawings, by the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and has remained there since.[10]
Evidence of collaboration

Evidence has been found that Leonardo might have been influenced by the work of Giacomo
Andrea de Ferrara, a Renaissance architect, expert on Vitruvius, and close friend of his.[11]
Giacomo Andrea's original drawing has only one set of arms and legs while Leonardo's has
the position of his man's arms and legs change.[12]
Another possible influence for Leonardo's depiction could have been the codex depictions of
human proportions in architecture by Francesco di Giorgio, a Sienese architect who compiled
in 1470 an unpublished treatise on civil and military architecture (Trattato di Architettura
Civile e Militare).
Figures from Francesco di Giorgio's treatise

Vitruvian man.

Church Design

Castle Design

Derivative works

The Vitruvian Man has inspired a number of derivative works:

Cesare Cesariano (1521) who edited the important 1521 edition of De

Architectura of Vitruvius (Leonardo da Vinci is supposed to have provided
the illustrations for this edition).

Albrecht Drer (1528) in his book Vier Bcher von menschlicher Proportion
(four books on human proportions)

Pietro di Giacomo Cataneo (1554)

Heinrich Lautensack (1618)

William Blake (1795) "Glad Day", now known as "Albion rose". This
representation is without the circle and square.

The Italian 1 euro coin

See also

Anthropometry

Body proportions

Leonardo's robot

Modulor

Notes
1.
Above the image:

Vetruvio, architecto, mecte nella sua op(er)a d'architectura, chelle misure dell'omo sono
dalla natura
disstribuite inquessto modo cio che 4 diti fa 1 palmo, et 4 palmi fa 1 pie, 6 palmi fa un
chubito, 4
cubiti fa 1 homo, he 4 chubiti fa 1 passo, he 24 palmi fa 1 homo ecqueste misure son ne' sua
edifiti.
Settu ap(r)i ta(n)to le ga(m)be chettu chali da chapo 1/14 di tua altez(z)a e ap(r)i e alza tanto
le b(r)acia che cholle lunge dita tu tochi la linia della
somita del chapo, sappi che 'l cie(n)tro delle stremita delle
ap(er)te me(m)bra fia il bellicho. Ello spatio chessi truova infralle ga(m)be fia tria(n)golo
equilatero
Below the image:

Tanto ap(r)e l'omo nele b(r)accia, qua(n)to ella sua alteza.

Dal nasscimento de chapegli al fine di sotto del mento il decimo dell'altez(z)a del(l)'uomo.
Dal di socto del mento alla som(m)it del chapo he l'octavo dell'altez(z)a dell'omo. Dal di sop(r)a del pecto alla som(m)it del
chapo fia il sexto dell'omo. Dal di sop(r)a del pecto al nasscime(n)to de chapegli fia la sectima parte di tucto l'omo. Dalle tette al
di sop(r)a del chapo fia
la quarta parte dell'omo. La mag(g)iore larg(h)ez(z)a delle spalli chontiene ins [la oct] la
quarta parte dell'omo. Dal gomito alla punta della mano fia la quarta parte dell'omo, da esso gomito al termine della
isspalla fia la octava
parte d'esso omo; tucta la mano fia la decima parte dell'omo. Il menb(r)o birile nasscie nel
mez(z)o dell'omo. Il
pi fia la sectima parte dell'omo. Dal di socto del pi al di socto del ginochio fia la quarta
parte dell'omo.
Dal di socto del ginochio al nasscime(n)to del memb(r)o fia la quarta parte dell'omo. Le
parti chessi truovano infra
il me(n)to e 'l naso e 'l nasscime(n)to de chapegli e quel de cigli ciasscuno spatio p(er)se
essimile alloreche 'l terzo del volto