Title: The Vitruvian Man: Fact or Fiction
1The Vitruvian Man Fact or Fiction??
2Vitruvius, a Roman engineer of the first century
B.C., influenced Leonardo da Vinci's work in
architecture and also his drawing of the human
figure. One of Leonardo's drawings is called the
Vitruvian Man. It is based on a model of ideal
proportions which Vitruvius established. The
drawing shows a square inscribed inside a circle.
There is a man with outstretched arms and legs,
in fact two pairs of each, which touch both the
circumference of the circle and the vertices of
the square.
3Upon viewing the drawing the conclusion can be
made that the length of a man's arm span is equal
to the height of the man. In other words the
ratio of the Vitruvian Man's arm span to his
height equals 1.