Vitruvian man
“Vitruvian man” is a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Before I talk about that, let me tell you about a math problem that was talked about by many in the Da Vinci City era. You and I have learned in plain text that the area of a circle is obtained by multiplying the square of the radius by the square and the area of a square is equal to the square of its side length. The problem for many mathematicians at the time was how to make a square with a square area equal to the area of a circle. This was a problem that existed even before the European Renaissance.
This is an unsolvable problem due to the nature of the pie value. However, Da Vinci was often tormented by this fact. To answer this question he puts a man in the middle of a circle and a square and draws the picture below. Da Vinci drew this picture using an ink pen on a page of a book. He takes the idea for this in BC. From a quote from Marcus Vitruvius, a Roman architect who lived between 75 and 15 CE
According to Vitruvius in his book De Architectura, the centre of a man is at his navel. A scale figure of a man can be drawn in a circle on the navel and drawn a perfect circle to cover the man at some distance.
Vitruvius further wrote that when a man stretches out his arms horizontally, his length is equal to the height of a man. The reason for this image of Da Vinci is as stated by Vitruvius. This is why he calls this painting the ‘Vitruvian Man’.
In his works, Vitruvius states that the width of a man’s shoulder is one foot, the length of the hand from elbow to fingertip, the length of the hand from the waist to the armpit is 1/8, and the distance from the chin to the top of the head is 1/8.
Da Vinci’s painting was influenced not only by the aforementioned mathematical problem. This was due to a concept of society developed by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle from ancient Greek times. It stated that this whole society was a chain, with God at its top and then angels, planets, stars, animals, and plants, and finally demons. The man here was right in the middle of the chain.
But during the Renaissance, a scholar named Pico Della Mirandola said that in this chain man could occupy any place he wished. He acknowledged that man can sometimes be as evil as the devil and sometimes as good as God.
Da Vinci illustrated this concept in his painting. The way the man handles his hand in this painting may be similar to the area of a circle, and the way he handles another way may be equal to the area of a square. But there is only one man.
One person can be both God and the Devil. The decision is yours.
