Vitruvian Man

"Vitruvian Man" is that pen-and-ink drawing you are probably familiar with, by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), of a man in anatomical, side, and spread poses inside, and defining the points of, a circle and a square. Da Vinci made the drawing in about 1492.

Remember the Monticello post a few days ago? Oh, well, no matter.  Anyway, we recovered the 10-volume work, De architectura (Ten Books of Architecture) by Vitruvius, first-century-BCE Roman architect, in 1414. But we did not recover his illustrations.

Vitruvius believed that human proportions had their basis in the cosmic principles of geometry and proposed that this truth should inform our architecture. Since we had lost Vitruvius's original drawing, da Vinci made one, giving Vitruvius's text in the mirror-writing around the figure.

In 2011, researchers at Imperial College London noticed that the model for da Vinci's drawing may have been a cadaver who died of the inguinal hernia evident on the left side of the groin. (Today, if the condition were severe enough, we would have repaired it by emergency surgery; in 1492, it would have been fatal.)

The discovery that da Vinci's Vitruvian man has a physical flaw is big. Monumental, even. Vitruvius articulated the theory of the microcosm; da Vinci illustrated it, and, maybe even unwittingly, enriched the idea. Each of us is perfect as a Platonic representation of the human figure; each of us is subject to disease and imperfection as an individual.

I'm not a philosopher, so what do I know? But that's my take on it.

Vitruvian man is depicted on NASA's EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) patch. (NASA is the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.) The patch is worn on the spacesuits of members of EMU (American Extravehicular Mobility Unit) and on the uniform jumpsuits of people who have walked in space.

"Vitruvian Man" as drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in 1492.

"Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour" by Leonardo da Vinci - Own work www.lucnix.be. 2007-09-08 (photograph).

Monticello

In 1764, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) turned 21 and came into his inheritance of 5,000 acres in Albermarle County, Virginia, his father having died about seven years earlier. Jefferson first used the name Monticello in a garden-book entry of 1767 and, in 1768, he cleared and leveled the 850-ft peak called Monticello ("Little Mountain" in Italian) on his property.

By this time, Jefferson's library included Andrea Palladio's 1570 I Quattro Libri dell' Architettura (Four Books of Architecture), which showed plans for villas based on classical Roman plans, James Gibbs's 1732 Rules for Drawing, and an Italian-English dictionary. From his studies of these (and other) works, Jefferson, acting as his own architect, designed and drew up plans for Monticello.

Now the Venetian Renaissance architect Palladio (1508-1580) had studied Vitruvius (ca. 80-15 BCE), the Roman architect and author of De architectura (Ten Books of Architecture), whose text and illustrations were both lost during the first collapse of European civilization in the fourth century CE. Vitruvius's text was rediscovered in a monastery library in the early Renaissance, 1414, the first illustrated version was published in 1511, and Palladio himself provided illustrations for a later version.

On the plantation, Jefferson grew tobacco and mixed crops and later changed over to wheat. The property comprised the house, a nailery and other outbuildings, slave quarters, gardens for flowers and produce, and experimental gardens. Around one-hundred-and-fifty slaves served in the house, on the grounds, and in the fields.

Jefferson brought his wife Martha home to Monticello in 1772. They enjoyed ten years of happy marriage and parented six children, two of whom survived to adulthood. His wife died in 1782, four months after the birth of her last child. At this time, the original Monticello was mostly complete.

Two years after the death of his wife, in 1784, Jefferson left Monticello and took a diplomatic post in Paris. While in Europe, Jefferson continued his amateur study of classical architecture and took note of the current trends as well.

Jefferson returned to Monticello in 1789 and began remodeling it in 1796 on the site of the original house. This time he wanted to go beyond the drawings in the books and bring home the true Enlightenment spirit of Monticello in a way that the original building had not.  He continued remodeling Monticello throughout his presidency (1801-1809).

Monticello is illustrated on the reverse (back) of the United States nickel.

A floor plan of Monticello.

Image credit: Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Copyright © Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. From the Monticello website at http://www.monticello.org.