Vitruvian Man
Da Vinci's ink drawing of a naked man inscribed in both a circle and a square — the universal logo for 'human proportions' and Renaissance polymath thinking.
Origin
Leonardo drew it around 1490 in one of his notebooks, after the Roman architect Vitruvius's description of the ideal human body fitting both a circle and a square. The figure has two pairs of arms and two pairs of legs, showing both geometries at once. The original drawing is in pen, ink, and silverpoint on paper, and is so fragile it is almost never displayed.
Modern usage
The figure is on medical-school flyers, fitness logos, anatomy textbooks, and at least one country's euro coin. It's the universal symbol of 'human, measured' and 'art meets science.' Often used semi-ironically about anything trying to balance two opposing things ('the Vitruvian man of work-life balance').
Tags