Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns’s portrait of the genius polymath Leonardo da Vinci gave me fresh perspective on this portrait I took of Lowell Hutcheson at her home in Cato, New York.

Lowell’s outstretched legs, outstretched left arm and the tree branch extending behind her right shoulder, and the arc of her hemline make me think of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, a drawing inspired by the genius Roman architect Vitruvius who reasoned that a building’s ideal proportions could be found in the symmetry, proportion and geometry of the human body and in all natural forms. Da Vinci’s study shows the outstretched limbs of a perfectly proportioned man create the foundation points of a circle and square that harmonize together.

What a gift it is from these three visionaries to uncover and ponder new layers to this image.