The composition of the picture of Da Vinci “Vitruvian man”


Title The Painting Da Vinci The Vitruvian man It is difficult to say who Leonardo da Vinci was to a greater extent – a scientist or an artist. And in that, and in another area of ​​his work far ahead of time. That same universal genius that met in those days when all the achievements of modern science could still embrace one, though powerful, human mind.

“Vitruvian man” is perhaps more scientific work than a work of art. This is Leonardo’s analysis of human proportions.

Actually the drawing, created in 1490-92, is an illustration of the book by Leonardo on the works of Vitruvius, a Roman architect and mechanic, who was interested in the ergonomics of proportioning. A man, a naked man in two poses, superimposed on each other: with arms and legs spread out to the sides inscribed in a circle, and with legs folded together, inscribed in a square, Leonardo painted in one of his diaries, accompanying with his explanations. This picture, together with

the comments, is sometimes called “canonical proportions”

The picture is made with a pen and ink, is tinted in watercolor. He was created to determine the ideal proportions of the human or, more accurately, the male body, as Vitruvius described it in his treatises. In the notes, these proportions are given, which are more or less heard by everyone. The center of the circle is the navel of the person depicted; The diagonals of the square intersect at the base of his genitals.

Leonardo returned to the world familiar with antiquity, but the lost mathematical proportions of the human body; this discovery was one of the epochal achievements, of which the great Italian Renaissance subsequently grew. Even later, Corbusier made his own scale of proportions, using this same, Leonard’s technique.

“Vitruvian Man” – one of the most famous drawings of Leonardo. It is he who is considered the symbol of the “golden section”, the embodiment of ideal proportions, which are studied by both artists and architects. From it began ergonomics and all the branches of fine arts

and science related to the proportions of the human body. It is with this drawing that any artist subconsciously compares himself, as with a certain standard of harmony.

According to historians, however, the first “visual aid” depicting the person of Vitruvius was calculated and painted not by Leonardo, but by his companion, Giacomo Andrea da Ferrara, who, like Leonardo, was interested in the works of Vitruvius and studied them in detail. Data on this were published in 2012. The figure and Ferrara, however, from an aesthetic point of view, is inferior to the work of Leonardo incommensurably.


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The composition of the picture of Da Vinci “Vitruvian man”