Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man was not based on a specific individual person . Instead, it was based on the ideal human proportions described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio), who wrote De Architectura around 30–15 BCE.

Here’s what that means:

1. The figure is an ideal, not a portrait

Leonardo wasn’t drawing a real man or... See more

And someone like Piaget has studied this phenomenon in the development of the drawing styles of young children, and believes, then, that a child essentially—in the spirit of the old song that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny—the child develops through these cultural phases. You know, from the iconic hieroglyphic to the flattened—I can’t remember... See more