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Vitruvian Man
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<p>The <i>Vitruvian Man</i> is a <a href="/facts/Drawing/DA7GfHNW">drawing</a> by the <a href="/facts/Italian_Renaissance/BqPWuNmz">Italian Renaissance</a> artist and scientist <a href="/facts/Leonardo_da_Vinci/E83tcPl2">Leonardo da Vinci</a>, dated to c. 1490. Inspired by the writings of the ancient Roman architect <a href="/facts/Vitruvius/IVnqcSzv">Vitruvius</a>, the drawing depicts a nude man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in both a circle and square. It was described by the art historian <a href="/facts/Carmen_C._Bambach/9LEMwY4w">Carmen C. Bambach</a> as "justly ranked among the all-time iconic images of <a href="/facts/Western_culture/rPbgAhzI">Western civilization</a>". Although not the only known drawing of a man inspired by the writings of Vitruvius, the work is a unique synthesis of artistic and scientific ideals and often considered an archetypal representation of the <a href="/facts/High_Renaissance/prtrIJXu">High Renaissance</a>. </p><p>The drawing represents Leonardo's conception of ideal <a href="/facts/Body_proportions/bW41YcA8">body proportions</a>, originally derived from Vitruvius but influenced by his own measurements, the drawings of his contemporaries, and the <i><a href="/facts/De_pictura/F1kqwDwH">De pictura</a></i> treatise by <a href="/facts/Leon_Battista_Alberti/CykJ6jJQ">Leon Battista Alberti</a>. Leonardo produced the <i>Vitruvian Man</i> in Milan and the work was probably passed to his student <a href="/facts/Francesco_Melzi/RQYphMl4">Francesco Melzi</a>. It later came into the possession of Venanzio de Pagave, who convinced the engraver Carlo Giuseppe Gerli to include it in a book of Leonardo's drawings, which widely disseminated the previously little-known image. It was later owned by <a href="/facts/Giuseppe_Bossi/JxnF86xY">Giuseppe Bossi</a>, who wrote early scholarship on it, and eventually sold to the <a href="/facts/Gallerie_dell%2527Accademia/G1Ql3b9Y">Gallerie dell'Accademia</a> of Venice in 1822, where it has remained since. Due to its sensitivity to light, the drawing rarely goes on public display, but it was borrowed by the <a href="/facts/Louvre/wtUVdNUF">Louvre</a> in 2019 for their exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death. </p>