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14 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14. LEONARDO da VINCI (1452 - 1519) Paris. "The Virgin of the Rocks" Paris Version December 2003. AS PAINTED: London Version (1503 - 06). Paris Version (1483 - 86). Unlike the later London Version (see Analysis #13 -- Spider Web), this Paris Version has no convenient cross to provide solid reference lines, and therefore considerable fishing around was required before I was satisfied that I had something nailed down geometrically. The easiest entry into the search was to see if Leonardo's first version also positioned the four heads on a circle -- and if it constituted the same tribute to the 30-60-90 and the 45-45-90 drafting triangles. The answer to both questions, you will agree, is yes -- once the exhibit below is carefully inspected. Paris Version -- Exploratory Lines
This Paris painting is also quite large -- about the same 6 ft. by 4 ft. size as the London version. Is it not remarkable how both large paintings adhere so precisely to the pattern shown above? Remarkable in the High Renaissance era -- and even more remarkable today, considering the photographic images of both were taken after the paintings aged for some five hundred (500) years! I was obliged to draw many circles before being more or less confident that I understood what the painter had intended. This required bouncing around from circled feature to circled feature -- drawing a line here, another there, hoping something coherent would emerge. Indeed it did -- at least I can say that the heads were positioned around the circumference of a circle (to be repeated about twenty years later in the London version) -- and that the vertices of the 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles register quite precisely with an eye of each head (refer to Analysis #13 for an explanation of the Triangular Tribute). Da Vinci's Tribute to the Tools of the Draftsman's Trade -- his incorporating those combinations of angles in two masterpieces -- is just a sample of the legacy of mute messages that a diligent search for the Grail Geometry in Old Master paintings can contribute to the history of painting. While this is not yet the Grail Geometry, this pattern is confirmed by the positions of about a dozen prominent features (circled) including -- gratifyingly -- a precise hit on the end of the Virgin's thumb! (circled and labeled.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE NEXT STEP will be more difficult due to the aforesaid lack of the convenient two reference lines provided by a cross (in the London version some twenty years later) for the baby on the left. I suspect that Leonardo may have added the cross for the later London version for the convenience of having at his disposal a prominent set of reference lines that did not need to be hidden. "X marks the Spot" -- On A Dissected Liver?
Surprised? No, we suspected it right along -- not only did The Grand Master of the Priory of Sion use the Grail Geometry, but he played The Jester with it -- just as Vermeer, El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Poussin, and many others have done with their so-called "devotional" and "genre" paintings. If you know what to look for -- you can see "them" -- if you want to see "them". LEONARDO'S PARIS SUPERNUMERARIES
My! What a big NOSE you have, Grand Mere! One picture of an angel's wink is worth a thousand Ave Marias -- and that's your penance, Master Leo, smarty! THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE ! "The hand that rocks the cradle / Is the hand that rules the world"--- William Ross Wallace d. 1881 LA MANO SINISTRA -- ARISTEROS CHEIR? There's one more "supernumerary" visage up there in the roof of the cave. And more hiding everywhere. But I have been warned about seeing the fanciful and the implausible..
(Analysis completed 12//12//2003) |
