Santa Fe New Mexico

Ascent of the Spirit

 

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9" x 12"

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• The painting includes Leonardo da Vinci's drawing Homo Vitruvianus (Vitruvian Man).

• Leonardo's accompanying notes explain that the drawing was created to visually map the proportions of the (male) human body.

• This new canon, this standard of the human form, created by Leonardo followed the descriptions found in the treatises of the classical Roman architect Vitruvius.

• The drawing is often used as a symbol of the inner symmetry of the human body – and of symmetry of the universe as a whole.

The symbolism of the picture is clear: the ascent of man to attain a certain ideal.
The potential for growth in self-understanding of the human spirit is presented as walking
up the steps. Given: those steps of the spirit are the very pages of the symbolic book.
The feather and the drawing of Icarus illustrate the idea of the flight of the human spirit
and its desire to soar, to succeed.