The Vitruvian Man

 

The Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci

“You sure are super speedy!” I gush, paused at the wall after my workout. Super Swimmer Man is stopped too. It’s 10:58. Only 2 minutes left before the pool closes here at Kennedy High.

He smiles. Handsomely. Humbly. “Well, I have Big Legs! I used not to use my legs so much. When I swam in high school, I just used my arms, you know?”

I nod, understanding. I have that tendency to mostly use my arms too. I’d read somewhere that swimmers move through the water using 80% arms and only 20% legs.

“….and so,” he continues, on a roll… “I started using my big legs more and wow! What a difference! I really felt like I was moving through the water at a much faster pace.”

“Well, you certainly did today,” I take off my cap, dunk my head under the water, preparing to climb out. “You were lapping me every few 100 and I was using my fins!”

He beams. “I do okay, I guess.”

Is he being modest or fishing for more compliments? He must know that he’s a super swimmer. After all, he does have the Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man tattooed on his back, between his shoulder blades.

As I was kicking on the kickboard, he passed me (of course), and I saw this tattoo. At first, I couldn’t quite make it out. It just looked like a big circle with a figure in the middle as he zoomed past me. But then the next time he passed me, I looked more closely and thought, Hey! Isn’t that the DaVinci Man? What does that mean?

When I talked with my Artist Mom later in the week and told her about it, she said that DaVinci was drawing a man with the circle to show the perfect proportions for a man. That maybe this was DaVinci himself. Or one of his lovers. (Did she say that? Or did I say this?) Then I looked up the image on ye ol’ google images and found out it was called the Vitruvian Man. I asked my mom what this meant, but she didn’t know. I looked up the word Vitruvian and it had something to do with scrolls and architecture according to the often-confusing Wikipedia. (A good place to start, but like I tell my students, not a credible source) Needless to say, the definition seemed to have little relevancy to my mom’s description of DaVinci’s purpose behind the image.

Vitruvius Architecture, World History Ency

I wonder why Super Swimmer Man had The Vitruvian Man tattooed on his back? Was this his inspiration to work on his own proportions? That is, if he has ‘big legs’ is he working on having Big Arms too? And a Big Torso? And a Big Head?

Hah!

Maybe he’s got this last proportion covered.

Back in the pool that day, he gave me a winning smile, “1 minute left. I’m gonna do another lap before they kick us out! See you next time.”

And he was off, churning up the water like a big-legged motorboat.  The Vitruvian Man covered in a frothy wave of white-water splash.