You wanna add some flair about high intelligence and history to the setting? You wanna convey that a character is advanced (technologically or otherwise) to the audience? Bring in The Vitruvian Man!
The Vitruvian Man itself
is a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci, part of a larger work about ideal human body proportions and how they relate to fractions, and it's named after the Roman architect. It's technically two figures over each other, the one in front merely having his hands extended while legs are close together, and the one in the back is is in a jumping jack pose.
This trope come in two kinds:
- The sketch itself appears.
- A character is depicted in the same pose(s). Bonus points if the character has extra pairs of limbs to really mimic the sketch's two poses, one superposed over the other.
Overall, the Vitruvian pose's resemblance to a crucifixion pose does help its popularity a lot. One could even say it's practically a science fiction equivalent of crucifixion, though not limited to that genre.
Note that this can include more comedic uses, especially if the subject is not exactly a genius.
Examples:
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- In 2007 one telecom company printed a corporate calendar with plump cartoon zebras (their mascot) replacing characters in recognizable artworks of the XV-XX centuries.note The Virtuvian Zebra is titled "Developing a Brand Book".
Anime & Manga
- In Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto, Sakamoto makes a snow angel in the shape of the Vitruvian man. His classmates mistakenly attribute the original to Leonardo DiCaprio.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run, Gyro's backstory involves studying the vitruvian design as part of his training becoming an executioner.
- In the manga adaptation of So I'm a Spider, So What?, Kumoko finishes a graceful fall from a great height by doing a spidery version of the pose on landing. Having eight limbs, she's especially well suited for it.
Comic Books
- The cover of issue 4 of Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire features Robo in the Vitruvian Man pose.
- The Vitruvian man features in the background of the cover of Cyborg's first issue. It fits with his theme of being a modified human being.
Film — Live-Action
- The drawing itself is featured in π where Max overlays it with a sketch of the Golden Ratio.
- The Da Vinci Code: Jacques Sauniere is the curator of the Louvre in Paris. He is shot by Silas, an agent of the Council of Shadows. Sauniere is dying, so he leaves clues about the reason he was shot in the grand gallery, which includes lying face up and naked on the parquet floor in the Vitruvian Man pose.
- The website for the religion Dudeism, inspired by The Big Lebowski, features the dude in the Vitruvian Man pose, with him holding in his hands a bowling ball and beer and a V-sign.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape presents a picture of a werewolf depicted in the style of the Vitruvian Man.
Literature
- In All Tomorrows, the Qu's subjugation and re-engineering of humanity is illustrated◊ with a Qu hovering over the Vitruvian Man holding a weapon. While the cover shows a Bug Facer (one of humanity's post-Qu descendants) in the Vitruvian Man pose next to two of his descendants created by the Machine People.
- Discworld:
- In The Last Hero, the illustration of Rincewind strapped into a bizarre centrifuge device as space-flight training (and very clearly about to puke) is posed as a clear pastiche of the Vitruvian Man. Designed by Leonard of Quirm, of course, whose notes add that this would also be an interesting study of human musculature, if Rincewind had any.
- Leonard's entry in The Discworld Companion is illustrated with a Vitruvian Man set against the world turtle rather than a circle.
Live-Action TV
- Brass Eye: In the opening sequence for this series, Chris Morris (the character, not the creator) can be seen going into the Vitruvian pose at the end, which probably helps to emphasise the surrealness and faux-intellectual nature of the show.
- In the Philomena Cunk series "Cunk On Earth", there's a drawing of Cunk herself in this pose during the title sequence, possibly a Shout-Out to Brass Eye's similar use of the presenter in that pose.
- One poster for Westworld features one female host in this pose while suspended in a ring. In the series itself, this is when Hosts are placed on the ring in the Vitruvian Man pose before being immersed in a solution that places the last of their flesh on them.
- Eyewitness: In an episode on the topic of Flight, a 3D CG version of it appears and morphs to show how human proportions would be if we could naturally fly.
- Walt Disney Presents: In "The Story of the Animated Drawing", Walt uses a drawing of the Vitruvian man (though with a leaf covering his crotch) as an example of early art that unintentionally laid the groundwork for the art of animation. Through a highlighting of his limbs and Limited Animation, the man does a little dance.
- World In Action, an ITV documentary, had this as its logo which was the subject of Stock Parodies in British culture of that usage; this was not carried over to its successor series Tonight that launched on 8 April 1999, which went for a plainer Title Card instead.
Print Media
- The illustration for the Annals of Improbable Research article "How to Quantify Failure" is a drawing of the Vitruvian Man trying to cover his groin with his hands.
Puppet Shows
- Kermit the Frog has appeared a few times in this form and, at least once, Elmo.
Tabletop Games
- The first edition cover◊ of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying shows the Vetruvian man wearing a tactical vest and a loincloth, with a high-tech eyepiece, one arm turning into a pseudopod, the others holding a Big Freaking Gun, a skull-headed cane, and a dowsing pendulum, one leg with a tentacle wrapped round it, one in a Greco-Roman sandal, one bare, and one in armour. The second edition cover is a more elaborate full colour version, in which the left side of the head and torso are a blue-skinned woman, the arms are holding a Big Freaking Sword, a regular pistol, some sort of crystal and a Magic Staff, the tentacle attack and armoured legs are broadly the same, but one of the other two is wearing regular pants, and the other is cybernetic.
Theatre
- Modern versions of The Rocky Horror Show will usually depect Rocky being born from a slab with this image on it that spins around to show him in this pose on the other side.
Toys
- BIONICLE: A simplistic Vitruvian Man shape◊ was a symbol of Physical God Mata Nui. It also showed up on one of the forms of the Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of Life, with the two outstretched arms being the eyes. Fittingly, Mata Nui temporarily wore the Ignika when his spirit was bonded to it. The symbol was also on the entrance of the Codrex, the structure that powered Mata Nui's heart chamber, which was accessible by assembling six Keystones that formed the Vitruvian Man's shape.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: At the Flores residence, Holtz's favorite painting is the Vitruvian, displayed on the wall with a robotic design.
- Doodle God: A simplified version of the Vitruvian Man is used as the icon for the human group of elements.
- Elite Beat Agents: The fourth level, set to "I Was Born to Love You", has the player helping a man called Leonard seduce a woman named Lisa. Passing the first section has her do this pose in appreciation.
- Fallout 4:
- Synths are carried in a large ring while under construction, with their limbs splayed out in VM pose, before being submerged in a bath of some kind of liquid and reemerging fully functional.
- The Institute itself, who created the Synths, has as its logo a stylised form of Da Vinci's drawing.
- Hi-Fi RUSH: Several of the mission briefings has Chai featured in the Vitruvian style.
- LittleBigPlanet: A parody of the Vitruvian Man drawing can be seen in the opening levels of 2, and sees the pose assumed by Sackboy's ally Larry Da Vinci, himself an intelligent creator and clear expy of Leonardo da Vinci, the original's creator.
- In the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, many levels in the Renaissance world contain a Vitruvian Wheel, a large crushing wheel whose spokes are the limbs of a sculpted zombie posed like the Vitruvian Man.
- The title screen of Policenauts has a figure traced from da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, but in a spacesuit and pointing a gun.
- The original Syndicate featured a "Vitruvian Machine" which held a person in the Vitruvian pose while it ripped off limbs and various other parts to replace them with cybernetic replacements.
- In Warframe's The New War quest, the finale has what is implied to be the true form of The Man in the Wall, resembling the Vitruvian Man drawing albeit with the upper half of the face and the right index finger both missing.
Web Comics
- Tamberlane: In a World of Funny Animals Oakewood, an old librarian, figures out the origin of Tamberlane, a human child, after many months of research, when he stumbles on Vitruvian Man drawing in an old book.
Web Video
- Appears on screen in the finale of season three of Epic Rap Battles of History which features, appropriately enough, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rapping against the four Renaissance artists they are named after, including Da Vinci himself.
Western Animation
- The Cuphead Show!: In the Christmas Episode, Elf Stickler opens a book with Santa Claus in the Vitruvian pose.
- On Doc McStuffins, Dottie "Doc" McStuffins has a Vitruvian teddy bear picture on one of the walls of her clinic.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: In "The Greatest Concert Ever", Molly tries to get a country singer named Kenny Star to perform in Brighton and her planning board includes him in this pose (fully clothed).
- The opening for Iron Man: The Animated Series features the Vitruvian pose as Tony has finished suiting up.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In Top Bolt, Twilight makes a Pegasus version to teach a class of Wonderbolt recruits about wing symmetry.
- My Little Pony: A New Generation: Sunny's father, Argyle, is something of a historian, collecting records from the long-gone era of Princess Twilight Sparkle. Among his research is a drawing of Twilight in the Vitruvian pose.
