Revisiting Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man Using Contemporary Measurements

Abstract

Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci attempted to memorialize Vitruvius' description of man's ideal human body. To do this, he manually measured proportions and combined them, 1,2 creating one of the most famous drawings of the human body in the world-Vitruvian Man. [3][4][5] Today, precise anthropometric body lengths can be obtained rapidly on large numbers of individuals. We repeated his approach using contemporary body scanning measurements to determine what Vitruvius' proportions would be in this modern data set and how they would appear if drawn in the style of Vitruvian Man. We also extended the process to women.

De Re Metallica: An Early Ergonomics Lesson Applied to Machine Design in the Renaissance

“…Figure 7a shows some of these proportions regarding the total height, h 1 [37]. Although these proportions would be the ideal from the Aristotelian point of view, they usually do not coincide with the real man proportions [38]. Steckel, R., in the work New Light on the "Dark Ages": The Remarkably Tall Stature of Northern European Men during the Medieval Era, states that average heights fell from 173.4 cm in the early Middle Ages to a low of roughly 167 cm during the 17th and 18th centuries, based on a sample of skeletons from northern Europe [39].…”

Female Abdominal Landmarks and Their Improvements Using Polydioxanone Thread Placement for Umbilicus Elevation

“…Although it is easy to appreciate beautiful umbilici in the right position, erring in umbilici positioning after abdominal makeover could be troublesome because umbilici levels could directly influence patients' preoperative concerns and opinions about their postoperative results. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Traditionally, the distance from the xyphoid process to the upper edge of the umbilicus (XU), the distance from the upper edge of the umbilicus to the pubis symphysis (UP), and the distance from the upper edge of the umbilicus to the iliac crests (UIC), among others, are used as reference points to determine the perfect umbilicus position. 8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] However, because authors have measured the distances using different body positions (ie, standing versus supine), [9][10][11][12][13][14]17,[19][20][21][22] 2 XU/UP or UIC numbers are not comparable from one study to another (Fig.…”