Giant melting da Vinci artwork recreated on Arctic sea ice symbol of consequences of climate warming

An artist has recreated Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketch "Vitruvian Man" in the Arctic ice to draw attention to the ice melt, Greenpeace have said. The Arctic ice cap has shrunk to almost the same level as in 2007 when it was at a record low.



An artist specialised in aerial art, John Quigley, travelled to the region on board a Greenpeace ice breaker and reproduced da Vinci's most famous drawing - depicting a man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart - some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the North Pole.

The artwork, which Quigley entitled "Melting Vitruvian Man", measures the equivalent of four Olympic-size swimming pools. The man's two arms and one leg have been cut off, symbolically melting into the sea to illustrate the disappearing ice.


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Quigley used copper strips normally used to create solar panels to recreate the 500 year-old drawing. "Literally climate change is eating into the body of our civilisation," he explained.