Vinci - The Vitruvian Man Beige

The Vitruvian Man (or le proporzioni del corpo umano secondo Vitruvio in Italian, the proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius) is a famous annotated drawing, made around 1490 in pen, ink and wash on paper, by the Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), after a study of the important treatise on ancient architecture De architectura (on the subject of architecture) written around -25 by the Roman architect engineer Vitruvius (c-90-c-15), and dedicated to the Roman emperor Augustus. Famous representation of the perfect ideal proportions of the human body perfectly inscribed in a circle (center: the navel) and a square (center: the genitals) (symbolic of the circle and the square), the Vitruvian Man is an emblematic allegorical symbol of Humanism, the Renaissance, rationalism, "Man at the center of everything / Man at the center of the Universe", of the measurement and representation of the world. The original has belonged since 1822 to the Galleries of the Academy of Venice, which preserve it and exhibit numerous copies.

The Vitruvian Man, c. 1490
Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (drawings and prints department)