Vitruvian man

The Vitruvian Man
	Leonardo da Vinci , ca.1490
	Pen and ink on paper
	34.4 x 24.5 cm
	Galleria dell 'Accademia, Venice

A Vitruvian man (Latin homo vitruvianus , also: Vitruvian figure ) is a representation of the man according to the idealized proportions formulated by the ancient architect and engineer Vitruvian (ius). The most famous example is a 34.4 cm × 24.5 cm drawing by Leonardo da Vinci , which was created around 1490 . It is a sketch with notes from one of his diaries showing a man with his extremities outstretched in two superimposed positions. The figure touches a surrounding square ( homo ad quadratum ) or a circle ( homo ad circulum ) with the fingertips and soles .

The study shows how much Leonardo was interested in body structure and proportions and also represented himself again and again and is to this day not only a symbol for the aesthetics of the Renaissance , but one of the most famous and most reproduced pictorial motifs.

origin of the name

The name does not come from Leonardo da Vinci . It is reminiscent of the Roman architect Vitruvius , approx. 80–70 BC. Until approx. 10 BC He wrote between 33 BC. BC and 22 BC The only architecture books preserved from antiquity Ten books on architecture ( lat. De architectura libri decem ). These treatises were not illustrated and inspired many later artists to create their own illustrations, including Albrecht Dürer . Among other things, Vitruvius sets up the theory of the well-formed human being (Latin homo bene figuratus ) with an ideal relationship between the body parts:

“Furthermore, the center of the body is naturally the navel. If a person lies on his back with his arms and legs spread apart, and you insert the point of the compass at the point of the navel and draw a circle, the fingertips of both hands and the tips of the toes are touched by the circle. Just as there is a circle on the body, the figure of a square will also be found on it. If you take a measurement from the soles of your feet to the top of your head and apply this measurement to your outstretched hands, the result will be the same width and height as with areas that are square according to the angle. "

- Vitruvius

Leonardo's drawing

The original of Leonardo's drawing has been in the Galleria dell 'Accademia in Venice since 1822 , after it was acquired by an Austrian governor along with 25 other Leonardo drawings from the heirs of the Milanese art collector Giuseppe Bossi (1777–1815). For reasons of conservation, it is rarely exhibited. Leonardo probably learned about Vitruvius' text on a trip in 1490 when he met Francesco di Giorgio , who was translating Vitruvius into Italian. With his pen drawing, Leonardo da Vinci illustrates Vitruvius' thesis that the upright human being fits into the geometric shape of the square as well as the circle. He was neither the only nor the first artist to illustrate Vitruvius' text. Francesco di Giorgio himself drew a Vitruvian man. Only Leonardo managed to solve the overlapping of circle and square in such a way that a compelling, harmoniously proportioned shape was created. For this, Leonardo chose a different center point for the square than for the circle: As can be seen from the drawing, the artist places the circle exactly in the navel for “homo ad circulum”. With “homo ad quadratum”, on the other hand, the step is the center of the square. Other illustrators tried to match the center of the circle and square.

The appearance of the figure is not only determined by the circle and square, but also by the rules of proportion for the individual body parts (foot, head, etc.). Vitruvius says:

“The human body is shaped in such a way that the face is 1/10 from the chin to the upper end of the forehead and the lower edge of the head of hair, the palm from the wrist to the tip of the finger as much, the head from the chin to the highest point of the vertex 1/8 […] From the lower part of the chin to the nostrils, the third part of the length of the face itself is as much as the nose from the nostrils to the middle of the line of the eyebrows. The forehead is formed from this line to the hairline, also 1/3 [...] "

- ( Vitruvius: Ten books on architecture 3,1,2 )

Leonardo's inscription on his drawing also defines the body proportions by referring to the human-derived system of measurement that has been in use since antiquity : 4 fingers should make a palm (hand width), 4 palms a foot, 6 palms an cubit , 4 cubits the total height of a person , the same 4 cubits a fathom (i.e., an arm span). The ideal image of human beauty is therefore not an absolute one, but consists of the relationship between individual parts. Leonardo gained his ideas of proportions not only from ancient tradition, but also from measuring the anatomy of young men in the years 1489/90.

The double figure in the circle and square can also be understood as Leonardo's proposal for a solution to the squaring of the circle , which is impossible in a finite number of construction steps . In fact, the drawing shows a very elegant algorithm for approximate circle quadrature (in an infinite number of construction steps), which generates a recursive sequence of pairs of circles and squares, which converges with high accuracy to an area ratio of approx.1,0003.

The ratio of the side length of the square to the radius of the circle in Leonardo's picture corresponds to the golden ratio with a deviation of 1.7% , which is why it is often said that the picture is the “representation of the human being in the golden ratio”. Since the lines of side length and radius do not represent a unit and run in different directions, it is difficult to represent a relationship between the whole and its parts - as the golden ratio describes. Because of the deviation of 1.7%, one can argue about the formulation mentioned.

Evidence of collaboration

Evidence has been found that Leonardo may have been influenced by the work of Giacomo Andrea de Ferrara , a Renaissance architect, an expert on Vitruvius and a close friend. Giacomo Andreas' original drawing only has a number of arms and legs, but Leonardo changed the position of his husband's arms and legs.

Another possible influence on the representation of Leonardo could be the codex depictions of human proportions in architecture by Francesco di Giorgio Martini , a Sienese architect who compiled an unpublished treatise on civil and military architecture ( Trattato di Architettura Civile e Militare ) in 1470 .

Figures from Francesco di Giorgio's treatise

Vitruvian man	Church design	Castle design

Usage today

Italian euro coin

Sample of the health insurance card introduced in 1995

The Skylab 3 emblem.

Until the 1930s, Leonardo's drawing was mainly known to the narrowest circle of Leonardo specialist literature and in the theory of proportions at art academies, but the figure gained international attention through its use as a symbol of Leonardo's scientific orderly thinking in the Milan exhibition in honor of the artist in 1939.

Today the Vitruvian Man is a popular and often adapted figure. In addition to reproductions in murals or posters or as a tattoo motif , it can be found on the back of the Italian 1 euro coin , on the emblem of the Skylab 3 , as a symbol of the evolutionary-humanistic Giordano Bruno Foundation or as the logo of the health insurance card ( KVK) and electronic health card (eGK) of the German statutory health insurance companies .

An esoteric account by Rob ten Berge (1984).

Various modern authors and draftsmen alienate Vinci's original like a caricature . One example is Donald Duck , who graces the cover of Funny Paperback No. 357 as the "Vitruvian Duck" . Another comic implementation is the logo of the Linux distribution Knoppix ("Vitruvian penguin "). The figure is also used as the cover image of the album Clayman by the band In Flames , while the cover of the album Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One by the British band The Kinks makes reference to it.

Leonardo's drawing plays a major role in the esoteric and new age scene. Edged with a zodiac, the Vitruvian Man is a symbol of the New Man. In the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code , the dying Jacques Saunière places himself in the form of the Vitruvian Man to draw the attention of his foster daughter Sophie and Robert Langdon to the involvement of Leonardo Da Vinci's works in a secret.

The "Vitruvian Man" is also used as a symbol in traditional Chinese medicine . Here it is referred to as the Chinese ideogram. Reason: "The Chinese ideogram for 'man' shows a figure that is rooted like a tree in the earth and whose arms are stretched up like branches to the sky so that it can receive power from above and below."

Ultimately, the Vitruvian man is the orienting focus in Ulrich Brauckmann's “Wuppertal definition of entrepreneurial personality” in a delimited triangle with the external factors “normative regulation”, “endogenous determination” and “business competence”.

literature

Leonardo: l'uomo vitruviano fra arte e scienza. Exhibition catalog Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice 2009/2010. A cura di Annalisa Perissa Torrini. Marsilio, Venice 2009. ISBN 978-88-317-9900-3
Toby Lester : The symmetry of the world - Leonardo da Vinci and the secret of his most famous drawing , Berlin Vlg., Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8270-1104-6
Jan Pieper: Leonardo da Vinci's Homo ad Quadratum et ad Circulum. Ancient Roman dimensions and decimal scale in Leonardo's architectural interpretation of the Vitruvian proportion figure . In: INSITU 2018/2, pp. 243–258.
Bernhard F. Scholz: Leonardo da Vinci's proportional figure: description, drawing, stereotype, counterfacture. In: texts, images, contexts. Interdisciplinary contributions to literature, art and aesthetics of the modern age, edited by Ernst Rohmer, Werner Wilhelm Schnabel ... (Supplements to Euphorion: Zeitschrift für Literaturgeschichte 36). Winter, Heidelberg 2000, pp. 313-361.
Klaus Schröer, Klaus Irle: "But I square the circle ...". Leonardo da Vinci's study of proportions . New edition Verlag Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-86582-547-6 (first edition 1998).
Frank Zöllner : Vitruvius's proportional figure: Source-critical studies on art literature in the 15th and 16th centuries. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1987. ISBN 3-88462-913-1 .
Frank Zöllner: Anthropomorphism: The measure of man in architecture from Vitruvius to Le Corbusier . In: Otto Neumaier (ed.): Is the human being the measure of all things? Contributions to the topicality of Protagoras. Bibliopolis = Arianna. Ideal images of antiquity 4. Möhnesee 2004, pp. 307–344. ( Weblink ART-Doc )

Web links

Commons : Vitruvian Man - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Wikisource: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Literature on the proportion study The Vitruvian Man in the catalog of the German National Library
Latin text with English translation
Vitruvian Man at Zeno.org .

Individual evidence

^ Lecture materials: The Worlds of Leonardo da Vinci at Stanford University

↑ Frank Zöllner: Anthropomorphism: The measure of man in architecture from Vitruvius to Le Corbusier , in: Otto Neumaier (ed.): Is man the measure of all things? Contributions to the topicality of Protagoras. Bibliopolis, Möhnesee 2004 (Arianna. Wunschbilder der Antike, Vol. 4), pp. 307–344. ( Weblink ART-Doc )

↑ The surviving part of Leonardo's inscription refers less to the circle and square than to the proportioning of the individual body parts. In the upper part of the sheet the following text is written « Vetruvio, architecto, mecte nella sua op (er) a d'architectura, chelle misure dell'omo sono dalla natura disstribuite inquessto modo cioè 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) ae ap (r) ie 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 »Under the illustration it says:« 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 è il decimo dell'altez (z) a del (l) 'uomo. Dal di socto del mento alla som (m) ità del chapo he l'octavo dell'altez (z) a dell'omo. Dal di sop (r) a del pecto alla som (m) ità 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 insè [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 piè fia la sectima parte dell'omo. Dal di socto del piè 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 »

^ Frank Zöllner: The importance of Codex Huygens and Codex Urbinas for the proportion and movement studies of Leonardos da Vinci , in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 52, 1989, pp. 334–352. (Weblink ART-Dok, p. 6)

↑ Klaus Schröer, Klaus Irle: "But I square the circle ...". Leonardo da Vinci's study of proportions . New edition Verlag Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-86582-547-6 (first edition 1998). The algorithm of the proportion study became quite well known and is now the subject of interdisciplinary teaching of mathematics and art not only in German schools. The process was also discussed at Leonardo exhibitions in Vienna and Berlin and has been the subject of several scientific conferences.

^ The Other Vitruvian Man . Smithsonian Magazine. February 1, 2012.

↑ Did Leonardo da Vinci copy his famous 'Vitruvian Man'? . January 31, 2012.

↑ Eckhard Leuschner: How the Fascists took Leonardo under the nail An architectural-historical station of the "Vitruvian man" on the way to the popular image . In: Christian Hecht (Ed.): Constantly changing. Innovations, transformations, concretizations. Festschrift for Karl Möseneder on his 60th birthday . Verlag Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-88221-998-2 , pp. 425-440.

↑ Catalog entry for LTB 357 ( Memento of the original dated November 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Funny-taschenbuecher.de @1@ 2

[stanford-1] Lecture materials: The Worlds of Leonardo da Vinci at Stanford University

[2] Frank Zöllner: Anthropomorphism: The measure of man in architecture from Vitruvius to Le Corbusier , in: Otto Neumaier (ed.): Is man the measure of all things? Contributions to the topicality of Protagoras. Bibliopolis, Möhnesee 2004 (Arianna. Wunschbilder der Antike, Vol. 4), pp. 307–344. ( Weblink ART-Doc )

[3] The surviving part of Leonardo's inscription refers less to the circle and square than to the proportioning of the individual body parts. In the upper part of the sheet the following text is written « Vetruvio, architecto, mecte nella sua op (er) a d'architectura, chelle misure dell'omo sono dalla natura disstribuite inquessto modo cioè 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) ae ap (r) ie 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 »Under the illustration it says:« 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 è il decimo dell'altez (z) a del (l) 'uomo. Dal di socto del mento alla som (m) ità del chapo he l'octavo dell'altez (z) a dell'omo. Dal di sop (r) a del pecto alla som (m) ità 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 insè [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 piè fia la sectima parte dell'omo. Dal di socto del piè 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 »

[4] Frank Zöllner: The importance of Codex Huygens and Codex Urbinas for the proportion and movement studies of Leonardos da Vinci , in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 52, 1989, pp. 334–352. (Weblink ART-Dok, p. 6)

[5] Klaus Schröer, Klaus Irle: "But I square the circle ...". Leonardo da Vinci's study of proportions . New edition Verlag Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-86582-547-6 (first edition 1998). The algorithm of the proportion study became quite well known and is now the subject of interdisciplinary teaching of mathematics and art not only in German schools. The process was also discussed at Leonardo exhibitions in Vienna and Berlin and has been the subject of several scientific conferences.

[6] The Other Vitruvian Man . Smithsonian Magazine. February 1, 2012.

[7] Did Leonardo da Vinci copy his famous 'Vitruvian Man'? . January 31, 2012.

[8] Eckhard Leuschner: How the Fascists took Leonardo under the nail An architectural-historical station of the "Vitruvian man" on the way to the popular image . In: Christian Hecht (Ed.): Constantly changing. Innovations, transformations, concretizations. Festschrift for Karl Möseneder on his 60th birthday . Verlag Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-88221-998-2 , pp. 425-440.