The drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, The Vitruvian Man is believed to have been created about 1490. The artwork shows a naked man in two superimposed poses with his arms and legs spread and is written in both a circle and a square. It was inspired by the works of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. The work is a singular confluence of aesthetic and scientific ideas and is often regarded as a classic portrayal of the High Renaissance, as stated by the art historian Carmen C. Bambach.
The painting depicts Leonardo's vision of the ideal body proportions, which were initially inspired by Vitruvius but were also affected by his own measurements, the artwork of his contemporaries, and Leon Battista Alberti's De pictura book. The Vitruvian Man was created by Leonardo in Milan, and it was likely given to his pupil Francesco Melzi. It was eventually acquired by Venanzio de Pagave, who persuaded the engraver Carlo Giuseppe Gerli to put it in a book of Leonardo's sketches, resulting in the image's widespread publication. Giuseppe Bossi subsequently acquired it, authored early scholarly works on it, and then sold it to the Gallerie dell'Accademia, where it has resided ever since. The artwork is seldom shown in public due to its sensitivity to light, but the Louvre borrowed it in 2019 for their exhibition commemorating Leonardo's passing on the 500th anniversary.
Similar to how Leonardo came to depict the typical "Renaissance man," the Vitruvian Man is often seen as a symbol of the High Renaissance. Its alignment of classicism, naturalism, mathematics, and science gives it a special distinctiveness.
