The artist and science
Excerpt from the book 'Leonardo da Vinci - The Complete Paintings and Drawings' by Frank Zöllner
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By measuring man accurately anew, Leonardo succeeded in moving past the canon of human proportions established in antiquity. His drawing thereby marks a triumph of empiricism over the widely held faith in the authority of classical authors. Furthermore, in his famous, revised drawing of the Vitruvian Man, Leonardo created what remains even today the definitive visual statement of the proportions of the human figure.
The theory of proportion was naturally no invention of Leonardo's. The sculptors of antiquity and the artist workshops of the Middle Ages had all employed certain systems of measurement that, if adhered to more or less accurately, would guarantee a satisfactory rendition of the human figure in sculpture and painting (cf. Ch. 6). By the second half of the 15th century, a detailed knowledge of human proportions had already become standard amongst the leading artists of the day, as seen in the case of Antonio (1431/32-1498) and Piero del Pollaiuolo (1443-1496), whose works are clearly based on an intensive study of the measurements of the human body. On the theoretical front, the humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) had already developed a canon of proportion in his De statua, written before the middle of the century. These earlier efforts by artists and theoreticians, however, fell far short of the standard and accuracy of Leonardo's own studies. Leonardo's anthropometry in turn went far beyond the requirements of normal artistic practice.
Leonardo's interest in an anthropometry of mathematical precision was in part connected with the high regard in which the exact sciences, and with them measurement and geometry, were at that time held. Comparable efforts to establish a "scientific" basis for the fine arts could be found as far back as antiquity: through the rationality of measurement, art too could approach the logos and thus a more highly regarded sphere of human activity (Philostratus the Lemnian, Eikones, 1.1). The artists and theoreticians of the Quattrocento formed part of the same tradition when they tried to confer the higher status of exact science upon art. Thus Alberti sought to establish a "scientific" foundation for art in the first two books of his treatise De pictura of 1435. Other authors, such as the mathematician Luca Pacioli (c. 1445-1514) in the dedication to his Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita of 1494, honoured the efforts of artists to attain mathematical exactitude in painting by expressly extolling the merits of painters who used dividers and rulers, geometry, arithmetic and perspective. In his commentary on Vitruvius (fol. 46v) of 1521, Cesare Cesariano also stresses that the study of the exact measurements and symmetries of classical buildings leads to fame and social recognition.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
By measuring man accurately anew, Leonardo succeeded in moving past the canon of human proportions established in antiquity. His drawing thereby marks a triumph of empiricism over the widely held faith in the authority of classical authors. Furthermore, in his famous, revised drawing of the Vitruvian Man, Leonardo created what remains even today the definitive visual statement of the proportions of the human figure.
The theory of proportion was naturally no invention of Leonardo's. The sculptors of antiquity and the artist workshops of the Middle Ages had all employed certain systems of measurement that, if adhered to more or less accurately, would guarantee a satisfactory rendition of the human figure in sculpture and painting (cf. Ch. 6). By the second half of the 15th century, a detailed knowledge of human proportions had already become standard amongst the leading artists of the day, as seen in the case of Antonio (1431/32-1498) and Piero del Pollaiuolo (1443-1496), whose works are clearly based on an intensive study of the measurements of the human body. On the theoretical front, the humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) had already developed a canon of proportion in his De statua, written before the middle of the century. These earlier efforts by artists and theoreticians, however, fell far short of the standard and accuracy of Leonardo's own studies. Leonardo's anthropometry in turn went far beyond the requirements of normal artistic practice.
Leonardo's interest in an anthropometry of mathematical precision was in part connected with the high regard in which the exact sciences, and with them measurement and geometry, were at that time held. Comparable efforts to establish a "scientific" basis for the fine arts could be found as far back as antiquity: through the rationality of measurement, art too could approach the logos and thus a more highly regarded sphere of human activity (Philostratus the Lemnian, Eikones, 1.1). The artists and theoreticians of the Quattrocento formed part of the same tradition when they tried to confer the higher status of exact science upon art. Thus Alberti sought to establish a "scientific" foundation for art in the first two books of his treatise De pictura of 1435. Other authors, such as the mathematician Luca Pacioli (c. 1445-1514) in the dedication to his Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita of 1494, honoured the efforts of artists to attain mathematical exactitude in painting by expressly extolling the merits of painters who used dividers and rulers, geometry, arithmetic and perspective. In his commentary on Vitruvius (fol. 46v) of 1521, Cesare Cesariano also stresses that the study of the exact measurements and symmetries of classical buildings leads to fame and social recognition.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Leonardo da Vinci - The Complete Paintings and Drawings
Hardcover, 29 x 44 cm (11.4 x 17.3 in.), 696 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
Da Vinci in detail: Leonardo's life and work - the definitive edition. All pictures, all drawings!
The Proportions of the Human Figure (after Vitruvius), c. 1490