Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man

♥ This illustration depicts Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (1490). It depicts the ideal proportions of the human body. The name refers to the Roman architect Vitruvius and his work *Ten Books on Architecture*. In this work, Vitruvius sets forth, among other things, the theory of the well-proportioned human (Latin: *homo bene figuratus*), characterized by an ideal relationship between the body’s parts. The study demonstrates how deeply interested Leonardo was in physique and proportions.