Artistic Process: The Vitruvian Man

While in Florence this year I had the opportunity of visiting La Specola (museum of Zoology and Natural History) where aside from the natural history also houses a collection of wax anatomical models from the 1700s which can be traced back to the Medici Family. The name "Medici" comes from the same root as the words"medic" and "medicine". This family was also one of the benefactors of Leonardo da Vinci who was born close to Florence and took all of his early art training there.

As any art student I was introduced to the work of Leonardo (seems strange calling him "da Vinci" when that was just the name of the town he was born). However as a graphic artists and illustrator I wasn't as interested in his paintings as I was in his illustrations... this is where his real genius shone through. He invented tanks, helicopters and submarines centuries before the Industrial Revolution

Leonardo created his Vitruvian Man in 1485 while studying the writings of the Roman Achitect Vitruvius who recorded what were considered the ideal human proportions. Unlike previous versions however Leonardo overlapped the circle and square renditions to show the drop in the centre of gravity between the two and thus introduced the iconic 4 legged and 4 armed image we all know.

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"Vitruvian Man" is based on Leonardo's study of the Roman Achitect Vitruvius and is accompanied by notes (in mirror image) from Book III of his treatise De Architectura. In his book, Vitruvius relates the correlations of ideal human proportions which Leonardo notes and illustrates.

a palm is four fingers

a foot is four palms

a cubit is six palms

four cubits make a man

a pace is four cubits

a man is 24 palms

the length of the outspread arms is equal to the height of a man

from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of the height of a man

from below the chin to the top of the head is one-eighth of the height of a man

from above the chest to the top of the head is one-sixth of the height of a man

from above the chest to the hairline is one-seventh of the height of a man.

the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of the height of a man.

from the breasts to the top of the head is a quarter of the height of a man.

the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is a quarter of the height of a man.

the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of the height of a man.

the length of the hand is one-tenth of the height of a man.

the root of the penis is at half the height of a man.

the foot is one-seventh of the height of a man.

from below the foot to below the knee is a quarter of the height of a man.

from below the knee to the root of the penis is a quarter of the height of a man.

the distances from below the chin to the nose and the eyebrows and the hairline are equal to the ears and to one-third of the face.
It is Leonardo, not Vitruvius, who points out that ‘If you open the legs so as to reduce the stature by one-fourteenth and open and raise your arms so that your middle fingers touch the line through the top of the head, know that the centre of the extremities of the outspread limbs will be the umbilicus, and the space between the legs will make and equilateral triangle

Many years ago I designed a Viturian Jelling Stone

One of my favorite anatomy books.

A collection of Leonardo's anatomical drawings... not just the figure studies but all of the discections as well. While still a student in Florence, Leonardo achieved such notoriety that he was given permission to dissect human corpses and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome as well. 

Although the church commissioned his paintings, Leonardo was formost a scientist, mathamatician and inventor.

My friend Erika from America did a "Viturian (tattooed) Woman" which has been the logo for her studio "Art & Soul Tattoos" in Los Angeles for over 20 years

"Vitruvian Thor"

This is a homage to the master and although the preportions are not correct I'm hoping this will be overlooked in favour of the aestetics. A simple graphic rendition of Thor battling the Midgaards Serpent who is eating it's own tail. This work has been commissioned by the Florence Tattoo Convention for their 2015 convention poster... and if accepted, it will hopefully be seen on the convention T-shirts as well. If not... oh well, then we'll have to make our own :-) 

Here is one of my older drawings of Loki bound until Ragnarok which will be the basis for a future "Vitruvian Loki" and I hope to make a "Vitruvian Odin" to round out the series