Chica Dreams

From Wikipedia: Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, “Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe.” It is also believed by some that Leonardo symbolised the material existence by the square and spiritual existence by the circle.

The image of Vitruvian Man is a representation of perfect man. At the time Leonardo created this image, the circle may have represented the spiritual existence for some, but I’m prone to believe the artist more creative than that. Man within an enclosed and infinite cycle was his intention. The image of perfection trapped within a system. Leonardo was a genius and a visionary and I’m suspicious of the more simplistic explanations given to his work while he was known for his dabbling into the occult, alchemy and had a preponderance for symbolic thought.

For this column, we will assume Vitruvian Man is the image of Perfect Man (humanity) trapped within an infinite cycle.

I purchased a poster of Vitruvian Man a few years ago during a poster sale at the university I attended. This has been a favorite image of mine for several years, but after framing and hanging it, I had a chance to really think about the meaning.

During his early years, Leonardo da Vinci was taken in as an apprentice to a local, but well-known artist. Though already showing incredible talent, perfection was the lesson of the day.

Anything less than perfect was relegated substandard during the Italian Renaissance and though we may view art in different forms today, only certain styles within the artistic community that were accepted as genuine art. It was narrower in medium and form than we have today.

Throughout recorded history the circle has represented many aspects of life. The one aspect that cannot be overlooked is its inherent function of shape. The shape of a circle represents continuity or a cycle. If we go back more than three millenia we can see it represented not only the known universe in the form of the ouroboros, but also within the ancient maps of the world. The universe was a circle, as was the world and the life cycle of humans.

But I believe the circle represents much more to us than just the physical universe. We do keep coming back to the basic form and build upon it for higher representative thought.

Consider the idea of First Light.

The theory goes like this: light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second. Astronomers believe that events that occurred two billion years ago within the solar system are only now being viewed by us, because of this discrepancy in the amount of time it takes light to travel to us through space. Therefore, at some point in time in the future, it is agreed we should be able to see the beginning of the solar system; that is the Big Bang.

The problem is, once we see it—that first light—it is the key to our destruction. Humanity will cease. The Big Bang will be occurring simultaneously, in the past (however many billions of years ago), and here (at that time in the future), because of the time it takes for light to travel. The circle represents this paradox and humans have always been drawn to the circle because they know it represents a fundamental aspect—a key if you will—to our life cycle. The circle represents the beginning and the end; it is in fact, the alpha and the omega.

I don’t know that Leonardo had this in mind when he drew his Vitruvian Man, but there was something akin to it. Humanity trapped within the cycles of life, cosmos and the lesser realms of the social and historical.

Unfortunately, most of us are trapped within the forms established by historical and social conditions. That is, we adhere to what we perceive our particular society expects of us. We attempt to build images of ourselves that will be well regarded and respected within our communities, because that’s what a good citizen does. And the problem with that is, as we all know, there is a fear in stepping outside those well-crafted images. What will neighbors, colleagues and friends think?

Stepping outside the image or circle is a difficult move and not for everyone. It requires grit, I think.

I use the Vitruvian Man as a symbol of the Master Student. The student understands (or soon will) the human condition and attempts to make it better. There is a bit of Leonardo in the student, not so much that she/he will master perfection, but that she/he will master life and realistically, life is seldom about perfection unless we’re attempting creation. And even then, creation is subject to interpretation.