PHOTO: The "Study of human proportions" sketch seems to be very popular with graphic artists because it is often used by graphic artists in magazine advertisements and on TV. I doubt the only reason it is used so often is because it is not copyrighted and can be used for free. I clearly recall being excited by it as an adolescent boy when my grandmother first showed it to me in her art book collection that included the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), whose sexual orientation shows through in this drawing. The article Vitruvian Man (Wikipedia) says "The Vitruvian Man is a drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1490. . . . The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man." (The book that my grandmother gave me was by Edward Maccurdy, "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Arranged, rendered into English and introduced by Edward Maccurdy," George Braziller, 1955, first published by Reynald & Hitchcock, Inc. 1939. See p. 206-214 and between p. 416-417 for the figure Leonardo da Vinci human Proportions sketch and see previous post da Vinci's missing penis (4/29/06))
I was inspired to be a Renaissance man after reading the book and I was reminded about this artwork by the recent Leonardo da Vinci's 'Demons' TV show on Starz channel and article by Neal Broverman, "New Da Vinci Show Is Portrait of Renaissance Man's Man A new show reimagines Leonardo da Vinci's wild years, complete with sex and drugs," advocate.com posted Apr. 12, 2013, printed as Advocate, "Renaissance Man's Man, A new show reimagines Leonardo da Vinci's wild years complete with sex and drugs," April-May 2013, p. 64 that said, "Leonardo Da Vinci was a sword-fighting, opium-smoking hunk who loved sex with beautiful women and men. Or at least he was in the mind of David S. Goyer, the creator of the new Starz drama Da Vinci's Demons, which premieres April 12. The eight-episode series explores the Renaissance-era inventor, engineer, and artist as a young man, with many soap opera flourishes that throw the chiseled rebel into all kinds of 15th-century intrigue. While many aspects of the show are revisionist, Da Vinci's fluid sexuality is not one of them. The world's most famous artist has long been thought gay or bisexual"
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