Vitruvian Man

Vitruvian Man shows a naked guy in two superimposed poses with his arms and legs spread and is written in both a circle and a square. It was inspired by the works of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. One of the several notebooks that Leonardo maintained during his older years contains the pen-and-ink sketch known as Vitruvian Man. It is accompanied by comments on the ideal human proportions that the Roman architect Vitruvius outlined in a treatise on building from the first century BCE, remarks that are written in mirror script.

The painting depicts Leonardo's vision of the ideal body proportions, which were initially inspired by Vitruvius but were also affected by his own measurements, the artwork of his contemporaries, and Leon Battista Alberti's De pictura book. The artwork demonstrates Leonardo's attempts to comprehend important literature as well as his desire to add to them. Although he wasn't the first to depict Vitruvius's ideas, his illustration went on to become the most famous, in part because its fusion of mathematics, philosophy, and art thought to be an appropriate representation of the Renaissance. The drawing is presently held in a climate-controlled archive in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, where it is rarely on exhibit.