by Dukgyu | Jun 8, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Drawings
Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man
The Vitruvian Man (click for large image)
The Vitruvian Man drawing is a Leonardo Da Vinci’s artworks, originally titled Le proporzioni del corpo umano secondo Vitruvio, lit. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man was created around c. 1490, which translates as “Vitruvian proportions of the human body.”
It comes with notes based on the work of a famous Roman architect called Vitruvius. The ink on paper drawing shows two male figures superimposed on each other. The figures have their arms and legs extended to various degrees of extension.
The Vitruvian Man meaning
One illustration depicts the legs slightly apart and the arms straight out from the shoulders. The head and torso are completely superimposed in both figures. The male figures are inscribed within a circle and a square, representing the human body’s geometric proportions.
Markings on the bodies identify the points used to establish proportional measurements. Furthermore, shading and details indicating musculature and anatomical elements such as joints and genitalia are included in the drawing. The parts’ proportional relationship mirrors the universal design.
A “medical” balance of elements ensures a balanced structure. Thus, God’s creation of the human body system and man’s production of a good building share these qualities equivalently. This theme of the artistic microcosm surfaced as one of the great unifying principles of Leonardo’s thought in the late 1480s.
The inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci the Vitruvian Man
Leonardo Da Vinci was inspired to create the Vitruvian Man painting by Vitruvius, a famous Roman architect. Da Vinci’s background in geometry and anatomy gave him a unique ability to apply geometric principles to his artwork, and The Vitruvian Man is an excellent example of how he blended science and art.
The Vitruvian Man by Vitruvius
Leonardo devoted much of his life to establishing links between the composition of the human body and other natural models, as he was eager to elaborate on his ideas. Vitruvian Man may shed light on another problem that Leonardo attempted to solve during his career: ‘squaring the circle,’ which entailed drawing a circle and square with the same area without using a calculator.
According to the experts, this sketch demonstrates Leonardo’s mature understanding of the problem, which others did not realize until much later. Leonardo believed that the usefulness of the human body is equivalent to those of the universe, and Vitruvi Incomprehensible has frequently been used to represent the fundamental symmetry of the human body and the universe as a whole since its creation.
According to the online Encyclopedia Britannica, “Leonardo imagined the large picture chart of the human body he had created with his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He saw the workings of the human body as analogous to the workings of the universe.”
Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man
Leonardo’s ideal human body proportions are depicted in the drawing. Its inscription in a square and a circle is based on a description in ancient Roman architect Vitruvius’ book titled treatise De architectura. However, as previously demonstrated, Leonardo did not represent Vitruvius’ limb proportions, but rather those he discovered after measuring male models in Milan.
While the drawing was named after Vitruvius, some scholars today question whether such a title is appropriate given that it was first used in the 1490s. One of the most well-known world icons is Leonardo da Vinci’s, Vitruvian Man. Countless attempts have been made over the years to comprehend the composition of Leonardo’s illustration of Vitruvius’ principles.
The Vitruvian man symbolism is almost incomprehensible, it is a painting that da Vinci must have thought deeply about before he drew it. Giuseppe Bossi discussed and illustrated the Vitruvian Man drawing in his treatise on Leonardo’s The Last Supper, Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci (1810). The Vitruvian Man Leonardo da Vinci is currently on display in Venice, Italy, at the Gallerie dell’Accademia.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 8, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Drawings
Leonardo da Vinci Drawings
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest anatomists of all time. He dissected more than 30 human cadavers, studied every aspect of anatomy and physiology, and documented his findings with unparalleled beauty and clear imagery.
Leonardo studied anatomy to improve his drawings of the human body, but he also brought a scientist’s perspective to the discipline. Da Vinci’s early anatomical studies focused on bones and muscles, but he combined anatomy and physiology from the very beginning. Anatomists in Leonardo’s time often dissected stress-free bodies, such as drunks and tramps, whose bodies were usually male.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 1, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Drawings
Leonardo da Vinci Lady with an Ermine
Lady with an Ermine (click for large image)
Title: Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)
Year: 1489-1491
Size: 54 x 39 cm
Medium: Oil on wood
Location: Czartoryski Museum, Cracow, Poland
The Lady with an Ermine painting is a portrait painting generally ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance artist. Da Vinci Lady with an Ermine, which dates from 1489 to 1491, is painted in oils on a walnut wood panel. It represents a half-height woman rotated three-quarters to the right, but with her face turned to the left. The animal in her arms twists similarly, resulting in significant contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo had previously explored with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks.
What is the meaning of Lady with an Ermine?
A layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint are used to prepare the painting. The paint is applied evenly in general, similar to the Mona Lisa, while particular portions of the lady’s skin are more layered. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, an enticing young woman from the Milanese court who was the favorite mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan at the time of its execution; Leonardo was a painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution.
For 18 years, the duke was da Vinci’s patron and champion, earning him the moniker “the white ermine.” It is the second of Leonardo’s only four surviving portraits of women, the others being La Belle Ferronnière, Ginevra de’ Benci, and the Mona Lisa.
What is an Ermine?
The Lady with an Ermine painting was purchased by the youthful Prince Adam Czartoryski (a hero in the war for Polish independence) on his trip to Italy in 1800. Leonardo da Vinci Lady with an Ermine was commissioned by his mother, an avid collector and the founder of the Czartoryski Museum.
Art experts first assumed that the animal in the picture was merely a decorative element. They later discovered that ermine is an allusion to Lodovico Sforza. Why is this so? He was also known as Ermellino Bianco at times (white ermine). Leonardo was unable to paint a couple together due to the upcoming wedding of Ludovico and Beatrice d’Este. That is why he was portrayed allegorically as an ermine, which also covers Cecilia’s pregnancy, Cesare, his son, was born soon after.
The image vanished for generations after Cecilia’s death until resurfacing in Poland around 1800. For many years, it was mistakenly thought to be the likeness of the so-called “Belle Ferronière,” a rumored mistress of King Francis I. The inscription LA BELE FERONIERE / LEONARD D’AWINCI in the upper left corner alongside the artist’s surname, which is spelled in Polish, attests to this. However, given Polish history in the twentieth century, it is remarkable that the Lady with an Ermine painting has survived.
What is the price of Lady with an Ermine?
There is substantial debate over whether the Lady with an Ermine picture was created by da Vinci, Boltraffio, or da Predis. During one of his visits, Prince Adam Czartoryski purchased the picture of Lady with an Ermine in Italy. In 1800, he added the artwork to the Czartoryski Family collection. The picture is now housed in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland, but it is currently traveling to museums across the world because the Czartoryski Museum is undergoing renovations, which began in 2010.
On December 29, 2016, the Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct offspring of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798, sold it to the Polish government for a sum of €100 million.
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