LEONARDO da Vinci
(b. 1452, Vinci, d. 1519, Cloux, near Amboise)

Vitruvian Man

1492
Pen, ink, watercolour and metalpoint on paper, 343 x 245 mm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This celebrated drawing, probably the most famous by Leonardo, of a man with an athletic physique inscribed within a circle and a square illustrates the measurements of the ideal human body according to the rules of the Roman architect Vitruvius's De Architectura (first century B.C.).