Monday, January 7, 2008

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio


This is a better close up of the last commissioned piece I did. I thought to add a little more information about the man Vitruvius...I detailed the work to fit his life rather than the very famous Leonardo Da Vinci image.
Holli

Here is some more information about him from wikipedia...

Vitruvius is most famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas — that is, it must be strong or durable, useful, and beautiful. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. When perfecting this art of building, the ancient Greek invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as drawn magnificently by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

Vitruvius is sometimes loosely referred to as the first architect, but it is more accurate to describe him as the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier of existing architectural practice. It should also be noted that Vitruvius had a much wider scope than modern architects. Roman architects practised a wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms, they could be described as being engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, and craftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. The first of the Ten Books deals with many subjects which now come within the scope of landscape architecture.

4 comments:

my-yo said...

wow
so different
and yet
your style slides through clearly.
bravo.
truely bravo.

Shari Zollinger said...

Thanks for putting that up Holli. I am glad to be able to look at it. Can't wait for your next piece.

staceygriff said...

beautiful. I like the colors a lot. I enjoyed reading about him as well, but more importantly looking at every detail of the painting. Thank you.

Mark said...

Did the image disappear? I can't see it?