One of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous sketches, the ‘Vitruvian Man,’ is a familiar piece of art that can be found in textbooks around the world or hung behind glass on occasion. But this inspired sketch holds a fascinating origin story that revolves around the heartbeat of the Renaissance.
At first glance, the ‘Vitruvian Man’ appears to be a simple study of human anatomy rendered with elegance and mathematical precision. But beneath its clean lines lies a deeper story, one that begins over a thousand years before Da Vinci took pen to paper.
Is Leonardo’s sketch more than a simple artistic experiment? Click through this gallery to find out how ancient texts, unsolvable puzzles, sacred geometry, and humanist philosophy merged in one of the most enduring images in Western thought.