Leonardo's Vitruvian Man reconstructed on ice

Associated media

A giant version of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch ‘Vitruvian Man’ depicted melting from the sea ice into the Arctic Ocean has been constructed just 800 kilometres from the North Pole, as a call for urgent action on climate change.

Greenpeace-commissioned artist John Quigley, travelling on board the Arctic Sunrise, made the massive ‘Melting Vitruvian Man’ -- the size of four Olympic-sized swimming pools -- to draw attention to how climate change is causing the rapid melting of sea ice, which is outstripping predictions.

The announcement of this year’s sea ice minimum, expected later this month, could mark one of the lowest on record. Scientists say the sea ice could be gone altogether in the summer time within two decades, which would have grave implications for human beings and bio-diversity. The Arctic’s floating sea ice acts as the world’s air conditioner, helping to keep the global climate stable by reflecting much of the sun’s radiation that hits it back out into space.

The Greenpeace icebreaker became Quigley’s floating studio, after it was tethered to sea ice at 81.45 degrees north, which formed his canvas for the ‘Melting Vitruvian Man’. Working in freezing conditions, in one of the most remote and challenging environments on the planet, Quigley was assisted by volunteers from the Arctic Sunrise crew, using copper strips normally used to create solar panels to construct the giant copy of da Vinci’s 500 year-old drawing. All materials were removed after construction and the copper will be reused.

Speaking from the Arctic ice edge, John Quigley explained: ‘We came here to create the ‘Melting Vitruvian Man’, after da Vinci‚s famous sketch of the human body, because climate change is literally eating into the body of our civilisation. When he did this sketch it was the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the dawn of this innovative age that continues to this day, but our use of fossil fuels is threatening that.’

Greenpeace expedition leader Frida Bengtsson, said:  ‘The poles are the regions most sensitive to climate change on Earth, and the Arctic sea ice melt is one of the most visible impacts of climate instability. To highlight the dramatic changes taking place in the Arctic, Greenpeace has joined John Quigley on the sea ice to create this image, which illustrates how our dependency on fossil fuels is tipping the balance of the relationship between nature and humans.’
Quigley’s artwork kick-starts a month-long expedition for the Arctic Sunrise and her crew, which sees the ship facilitate a scientific research project by scientists from Cambridge University on an expedition to measure sea ice thickness.

The US-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), the main scientific institute studying Arctic sea ice extent, has confirmed that already this year, sea ice has retreated to the third-smallest area on record. There has been a dramatic decline in both the thickness and the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic over the past 30 years driven by a rise in global temperatures.