The Veneto regional
administrative court (TAR) on Wednesday rejected an appeal from
conservation and heritage group Italia Nostra against loaning
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man to the Louvre.
The iconic drawing is held in Venice's Gallerie
dell'Accademia.
The TAR found the appeal "insufficiently founded" and said
the Italian culture ministry was competent in the case.
"The identity character" of the work "is not absolute and
does not absolutely rule out loaning the work," the court said.
It cited past loans of The Tempest by Giorgione, Visions of
the Afterlife by Bosch, and Michelangelo's drawing "The Fall of
Phaethon".
The court said it was satisfied with measures to be taken to
protect the work.
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini welcomes the decision,
saying it showed that "the ministry's action is legitimate".
Vitruvian Man will be on show at the Paris museum from
October 24 to December 14.
It has been on show in Venice this spring and summer.
Vitruvian man is probably the most famous work on human
proportions, based on the works of the Roman architect
Vitruvius.
The drawing, whose full title is "The proportions of the human
body according to Vitruvius", was made by Renaissance genius and
polymath da Vinci around 1490.
It is accompanied by notes based on the work of Vitruvius.
The drawing, which is in ink on paper, depicts a man in two
superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and
inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are
sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often,
Proportions of Man.
It is kept in the Gabinetto dei disegni e stampe of the
Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice.
Like most works on paper, it is displayed to the public only
occasionally, so it is not part of the normal exhibition of the
museum.
Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal
source of proportion among the classical orders of architecture.
He determined that the ideal body should be eight heads high.
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