The return of the Vitruvian Man (Homo Vitruvianus)

 

From 10 October 2009 to 10 January 2010 the Homo Vitruvianus, one of the most famous images in the world, will be shown at the Accademia Gallery in Venice.  Due to its fragility the drawing is usually not on display but now it can be seen more than 7 years after it made the last public appearance.

 

The drawing made by Leonardo Da Vinci around 1490 is preserved in the Accademia Gallery since 1822, when it was bought by the Austrian administration governing this part of Italy.

 

 

The Vitruvian Man takes its name from the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius who lived in the 1st Century BC. His treaty De Architectura had an important influence on the subject throughout the centuries and especially in the Renassaince period. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the classical orders of architecture.

 

The drawing made by Leonardo represents a study of human proportions with geometry and of the relations of man with nature. “Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe*"

 

Before and after Leonardo, the Vitruvius’s treaty was illustrated by other artists, and during the centuries many depictions of the concept were made, including: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Fra Giovanni Giocondo (1435-1515), Cesare Cesariano (1521), Francesco Giorgi (1525), Mariano di Iacopo (known as Taccola), Albrecht Durer (1528), Robert Fludd (1617), Charles-Edouard Le Corbusier (1887-1966).

 

But none of the images created over time attained the fame reached by the Da Vinci’s drawing, a fame that keeps growing throughout the centuries, with many different interpretations of the concept in modern times.

 

The Homo Vitruvianus drawing is a pen and ink on white paper measuring 34.4 cm × 25.5 cm (13.5 in × 10.0 in).


The exhibition is open tuesday – sunday 8.15 – 19.15 and monday 8.15 – 14.00

 

 

Accademia Gallery website www.gallerieaccademia.org

If you are in Venice also consider visiting the 53 Contemporary Art Exhibition



*Encyclopaedia Britannica.  Special thanks to Michael John Gorman at Stanford University
 
 

 
  
 
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