How did da Vinci’s ideas and achievements draw from Greek and roman culture

Leonardo lived during the Renaissance, which was a period when the Italians were obsessed with everything Roman. The clearest example of Roman influence on Leonardo is the famous Vitruvian Man, which in Italian is called “The proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius”, is the clearest example of Roman influence of Leonardo. It is a drawing of a man which is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his De Architectura.

De Architectura is a textbook of Roman architecture and engineering by Vitruvius which was rediscovered in 1414 and published in 1486. It became very influential and played a key role in the development of architecture as a scientific discipline and on an architecture based on Roman style and principles. The architecture by Palladio, which was popular all over Europe, was based on the work of Vitruvius.

The Romans were keen on building constructed on precise proportions and symmetry and that these proportions should be related to the human proportions. Vitruvius also studied human proportions and produced canons regarding this. Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man encoded these canons.

During Leonardo’s life Greek influence of the Italian Renaissance was not very widespread yet. It is known that he frequented the Garden of the Piazza San Marco which was a Neo-Platonic academy in Florence which attracted artists and poets as well as philosophers.