Arcadópolis
Nudity. This work is shown blurred, as in the Museum.Show work
Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1490
What you see
A nude man, facing us, is drawn twice in a single figure: arms straight out with legs together, and arms slightly raised with legs apart. The first pose touches the sides of a square; the second reaches the edge of a circle. Above and below, lines of small handwriting fill the sheet.
It is brown ink on yellowed paper, with fine, confident lines and light hatching on the muscles. The face, stern and framed by curly hair, looks straight out. Spot the scale with tick marks below the square, the short lines that divide the body into sections, the mirror-reversed handwriting and the small round stamp at the bottom.
About Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was born in Vinci, near Florence, and was a painter, inventor, engineer and scientist all at once. He filled thousands of notebook pages with flying machines, studies of the human body and mirror-written notes. He finished only a few paintings, but almost all of them changed the history of art.
More by Leonardo da Vinci
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