What Is The Meaning Of The Vitruvian Man

PAPER ASSIGNMENT #3 HSCI 1714 SAKSHAM SHARMA
The Vitruvian Man is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. This drawing shows a naked man, with his arms and legs extended, inside a square and inside a circle. It is meant to represent that a human body is a blueprint for universal design. The idea of using human body parts for measuring things and using this idea to build according to “a set of standard measurements that could be understood or used by engineers and construction workers all over the world.” (Lester, 600). It has been also known that temple cannot be build without symmetry and proportions which resembles to principle
It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. This drawing shows a naked man, with his arms and legs extended, inside a square and inside a circle. It is meant to represent that a human body is a blueprint for universal design. The idea of using human body parts for measuring things and using this idea to build according to “a set of standard measurements that could be understood or used by engineers and construction workers all over the world.” (Lester, 600). It has been also known that temple cannot be build without symmetry and proportions which resembles to principle of a well shaped man. The Vitruvian Man does not limit itself to the proportions of a well shaped man as it was placed inside the circle and the square which provides resonance with “Anatomy and architecture, medicine and geography, religion and philosophy, politics and the ideology of the empire” (Lester,651). Parthenon is a good example of showing the ideas represented by a Vitruvian Man. The length of the column was 45 Doric feet, 48- common feet, and 50-Ionic feet which resembles the the measurements of the drawing on Solomus stone of Doric, Ionic and Common. So the Solomus stone must have provided the simple way of ancient workers to calibrate their rulers and cross reference different unit of measurement workers The ratio of the radius of circle and the side of the square in painting is 1:1.6. This ratio was used by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras who lived 100 years before the building of the Parthenon. It was known as Golden ratio because it was mathematical formula of beauty. For centuries many scholars believe that the golden ratio gives the Parthenon tremendous power and perfect proportions. Most importantly the ratio of height to width of the Parthenon is a Golden ratio. Scholars believe that there