Researched Essay

The Vitruvian Man

Leonardo Da Vinci is regarded as one of the world’s greatest artists of all time due to his contributions to the field of art. His work, The Vitruvian Man demonstrates Leonardo’s interests in not just in the field of art but also mathematics and science. He was also highly interested in the anatomy of humans, so much so that he would dissect corpses and go as far as to grave rob, which although a bit extreme, people argue was worth it for the sake of art and science. In The Vitruvian Man Leonardo conveys his profound knowledge of anatomy to perfectly embody the perfect human, according to the theories of Marcus Vitruvius polio.

The Vitruvian Man was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci more than 500 years ago, in around 1490. He drew it on a 1’2” x 10” with just ink and metalpoint on paper. The drawing depicts a man in two different positions overlapping each other. In one position he is standing upright, legs together and arms out to the side. In the other position his arms and legs are spread apart. It can also be seen as the body of a man with four arms and four legs, and hence can be seen in 16 poses at the same time. The man is nude and fairly muscular with curly hair up to his shoulders. The man in the drawing is inscribed in a circle and a square. The tips of his fingers and feet are touching the circumference on the circle and the square is the height of the man and the width of the length of his arms. The limbs of the man have lines and boxes showing that the drawing of it was very measured. (Stemp, Richard “Leonardo’s Vitruvian man” 20^th August 2010)

You can tell just by looking at it that it wasn’t made just for the sake of art, but also architecture and mathematics, given the whole geometric aspect it has. What was the reason for the work of art? What was Leonardo’s thought process behind The Vitruvian Man? Leonardo wanted to illustrate the “ideal proportions of man”, as in; he wanted the drawing to have quintessential body parts, their lengths and ratios: In other words, the perfect man, a golden standard for the bodies of humans. (Stemp, Richard “Leonardo’s Vitruvian man” 20^th August 2010)

The circle, the square and all the lines and boxes on the body of the man in the drawing were Measurements They were done in order to make sure the ratio and proportions of each limb was perfect, in respect to the others. Leonardo considered the measurements of an ideal body to be as follows: four fingers were the same size as the palm of the man, four palms were equal to one of his feet, six palms made formed a cubit, the distance from the fingers to the elbow, four cubits should be the height of the man and hence also 24 palms. There were many other similar notes around the drawing, going deeper in the geometry of the body as a whole and the measurements between certain parts in specific positions such as “If you open your legs so much as to decrease your height 1/14 and spread and raise your arms till your middle fingers touch the level of the top of your head you must know that the center of the outspread limbs will be in the navel and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle. The length of a man’s outspread arms is equal to its height.” Without the notes the drawing cannot be fully understood. Leonardo’s fascination with anatomy is said to have actualized when he worked as an apprentice to Andrea de’ Verrocchio in his workshop in Florence. Verrocchio was a painter, sculptor and goldsmith. Antonio del Pollaiolo may have also been an influence on Leonardo in this regard, as he was well known for his keen interest in how the human body works. (Spooke,

Alastair “Leonardo da Vinci’s groundbreaking anatomical sketches, Alastair Sooke looks through the ultimate Renaissance man’s anatomical sketchbooks – scientific masterpieces full of lucid insights into the functioning of the human body.” 21st October 2014, BBC Culture)

The Vitruvian Man also had notes around it from Leonardo’s explanations of the proportions and measurements. These notes were derived from the work of Marcus Vitruvius Polio, after whom Leonardo named his drawing. Vitruvius was a Roman architect, engineer and author. He had many theories regarding architecture and its perfect proportions and that of the human body as well. “For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centered 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.” This is a verse written by Vitruvius on the ideal ratio of man. Following Vitruvius’s theory, Leonardo drew his version of the perfect man. Leonardo slightly modified the theories in some aspects, for example, the center of the circle and square are not the same in Da Vinci’s version, also in this version the fingertips are at the same level as the mans head, unlike in Vitruvius’s theory.

(Seland, Darryl. “The vitruvian man: the human factor.” Quality, Dec. 2013, p. 6. Gale Academic Onefile,https://linkgalecom.ccny proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A392480043/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=59a80979. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.)

Besides Leonardo, other people have also attempted to illustrate ideal man, using Vitruvius’s theories and notes. The first recorded attempt was done by a man named Francesco di Giorgio Martini in the 1480s. He was an Italian architect, engineer, artist, writer and was also considered an architectural theorist. His version of the ideal proportions of man, had not met many of the stipulations of Vitruvius’s theory. (“‘Da Vinci’s Ghost,’ Manifest In The Vitruvian Man.” Talk of the Nation, 8 Mar. 2012. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A283170453/AONEu=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=d1d6 c21. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.)

The circle and square of the theory has a deeper story behind it. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man can be seen as the geometrical algorithm for “the squaring of the circle,” through an infinite number of steps. The squaring of the circle essentially is an arithmetic problem brought up by ancient Greeks, is to compose a pair of a circle and a square, having the same area and can only use a compass and a ruler, Throughout the years numerous people tried and failed. In 1823 the German mathematician Ferdinand von Lindermann proved that this problem can only be solved in an infinite number of construction steps. Leonardo was obsessed with this problem, and without knowing about Lindermann, claimed to have the solution in an infinite number steps for it. (Crato, Nuno. “The Vitruvian Man.” Figuring It Out: Entertaining Encounters with Everyday Math, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010, pp. 107–110.)

The circle and square of the theory actually have a more mythological meaning, outside of the mathematics or architecture behind it. Leonardo also believed his drawing illustrates the human form and the universe. The circle represents the divine or infinite and the square represented the earthly or mortal. The human body fitting into both these is signifies that the body of man is not controlled by the rules of the world, but instead is a miniature form of the world, the microcosmic theory. (“‘Da Vinci’s Ghost,’ Manifest In The Vitruvian Man.” Talk of the Nation, 8 Mar.2012.Gale Academic Onefile, https://linkgale.com.ccnyproxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A283170453/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=d1d6bc21. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.)

The reason for Leonardo’s alterations was to make it so that the man would fit inside both the square and circle. Leonardo made a series of sketches similar to The Vitruvian Man, mostly of dissections. Leonardo gained his knowledge on the anatomy of the human body by dissecting human corpses and studying them. According to Leonardo himself , he dissected 30 corpses during the span of his life, till his death in 1512. Leonardo started out by studying the stationary bodies’ skeleton and muscles, then moved onto individual body parts and their movements and with the knowledge he gained and notes he took, through 1510 and 1511, he compiled a book known as the Anatomical Manuscript. This manuscript has 18 pages of over 240 drawings and more than 13 thousand words of notes. (Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich “Leonardo da Vinci ITALIAN ARTIST, ENGINEER, AND SCIENTIST” Britannica)

In his research he also made a multitude of noteworthy discoveries, which were some of the most substantial achievements of the Renaissance science. Leonardo was the first person to accurately portray the human spine and also describe the cirrhosis of the liver. One of his most important discoveries was that the human heart had four chambers and not two like previously believed. The atria of the heart both contracts together while the ventricles both relax simultaneously and vice versa (Spooke, Alastair “Leonardo da Vinci’s groundbreaking anatomical sketches, Alastair Sooke looks through the ultimate Renaissance man’s anatomical sketchbooks – scientific masterpieces full of lucid insights into the functioning of the human body.”( 21st October 2014, BBC Culture.) . Anatomical science advanced greatly due to these discoveries and his manuscript.

To summarize, Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, not just artistically but scientifically as well as mathematically, makes it one of mans greatest works as it opened many doors in all these fields, furthering them great deals.

Citations:

Crato, Nuno. “The Vitruvian Man.” Figuring It Out: Entertaining Encounters with Everyday Math, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010, pp. 107–110.

“‘Da Vinci’s Ghost,’ Manifest In The Vitruvian Man.” Talk of the Nation, 8 Mar. 2012. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A283170453/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=d1d6bc21. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.

Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich “Leonardo da Vinci, ITALIAN ARTIST, ENGINEER, AND SCIENTIST” Britannica

Richman-Abdou, Kelly “The Significance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Famous “Vitruvian Man” Drawing” 5th August 2018, My Modern Met

Seland, Darryl. “The vitruvian man: the human factor.” Quality, Dec. 2013, p. 6. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A392480043/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=59a80979. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.