The Vitruvian Man

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Vitruvian Man” might be the most famous ink drawing ever created.  It was done in 1487 and since then has come to be recognized as a metonym for health.  Because of this many physical therapy places have made it their logo.  A simple Google images search for “physical therapy logos” returned 14 results that had a physical therapy practice using the “The Vitruvian Man” or their own rendition of it as their logo.

When Leonardo Da Vinci first drew “The Vitruvian Man” it was respected as the most accurate drawing of a proportional man.  It was sometimes referred to as the Canon of Proportions because in mirrored text on the drawing he wrote all of the perfect proportions of a man’s body.  In recent years this picture has come to symbolize health, and in particular athletic wellbeing.  This is kind of interesting though, because some research has now shown that his proportions don’t even correlate to the perfect proportions that they once thought they did, but nonetheless people still think of athletic wellbeing when they see it. Due to this drawing being a metonym for health and in particular athletic wellbeing many physical therapy practices have now adopted it as part of their logo.  On Physical Therapy At Dawn's website they have this quote underneath a picture of “The Vitruvian Man.”  “The Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo Da Vinci…is the symbol of Physical Therapy At Dawn. Da Vinci’s anatomical and mechanical drawings represented some of the finest advances in science and mechanics and epitomize what we do for and what we bring to our clients.”  This quote I feel explains exactly why so many physical therapy practices use this drawing as their symbol because exactly what it says is what people come to think of when they see “The Vitruvian Man.”

some logos from physical therapy places using "The Vitruvian Man"