A photo of an original page from
Leonardo da Vinci's journal, showing the world-renowned drawing known as the
Vitruvian Man, created around the year 1492. The drawing and text are sometimes called the
Canon of Proportions or, less often,
Proportions of Man. Leonardo based his drawing on some hints at correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry in Book III of the treatise
De architectura by the ancient Roman architect
Vitruvius, thus its name. The accompanying notes are written in
mirror writing and describe the drawing as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described by Vitruvius.
Photo credit: Luc Viatour