legs spread, in the middle of a church and the universe,” writes Walter Isaacson in Leonardo da Vinci. “When the curator took it out andplaced it on the table in front of me, I was amazed by the indentations left by the shaft of Leonard’s pen with its metallic tip and the twelve holes left by the tip of his compass. I had a spooky and intimatefeelingof seeingthehandof amasteratworkmorethan five hundred years ago. Unlike the drawings of his friends, Leonard’s was meticulously done. His lines aren’t as unsure as in the sketch. Instead, he pressed the shaft of his pencil with force and confidently cut lines into the page as if engraving. he planned that sketch carefully and knewexactly what he was doing,” says Isaacson relating his impressions. Leonardosketchedabodyof“extraordinaryandunnecessary beauty”, continues Isaacson with admiration. “With his strong yet intimate appearance and curls of hair thathe lovedtodraw, hismasterpiece intertwineswithin it both the human and the divine. It appears as though the man is on the move... Vitruvian man embodies the instant when art and science combine to enable mortal minds to deal with eternal questions about who we are and howwe fit into the grandorder of the universe (...)Within the square and circle we can see the essence of Leonardo da Vinci and the essence of ourselves, whilewe stand naked at the intersection of the earthly and the cosmic,” concludes Isaacson. This drawing, created through the medium of ink on paper, is 25.4 cm wide and 35.5 cm long. Leonardo drew it around 1490, when he was about 38 years old. The man in the picture is around the same age. Using the argument that contemporaries described Da Vinci as having beautiful curly hair and a body of good proportions, some scholars claim that The Vitruvian man is his self-portrait, while others reject that theory.
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