The Bizarre, Obscene, and Disturbing Hidden Images in Leonardo da Vinci’s Sacred Art

[stryker]

http://snarfd.com/2007/11/28/the-biz...is-sacred-art/

The Bizarre, Obscene, and Disturbing Hidden Images in Leonardo da Vinci’s Sacred Art
Posted 28 Nov, 2007 under Art by Chris Baskind


It’s well known that Leonardo da Vinci protected his thoughts with a form of secret writing: a cursive script traced out from right to left, readable only by the use of a mirror.

But if an Italian group calling itself the Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings World Foundation is correct, da Vinci and his contemporaries may have been doing a lot more with mirrors than anyone has previously imagined.

Perhaps you’ve wondered about the conventions of classical art — the outstretched hands and elegant gestures; characters which stare into space, as if looking for the Divine.

They’re cues, according to the Mirror of Sacred Scriptures website: guidelines for the placement of mirrors which reveal hidden faces, symbols, and subjects. The meaning of some are obscure. Others are disturbing, mystical — and occasionally obscene.

The Italian newspaper la Repubblica recently publicized a sampling of these secret images. We’ve reproduced four here, taken from two of da Vinci’s best-known works.

Here is Leonardo’s The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, a charcoal dating to the turn of the 16th century, now part of the National Gallery in London:





Mary is on the left with the infant Jesus. Anne is to our right, with a young John the Baptist. Notice Anne’s hand, held in what is known as the Leonardesque Gesture, an enigmatic pose found in the painter’s later works. The Mirror Foundation believes it signifies the presence of a secret — you’ll see something similar in the Last Supper, which also seems to contain hidden images. Notice that the young John is not looking at Jesus, but past him.

The image below — produced by a computer which simulates a mirror placed at a slight angle, crossing the plane of Mary’s left leg — reveals what John the Baptist sees:





What to make of this horrifying face? The Mirror Foundation suggests it is topped by the Papal Tiara. Perhaps it portends the coming power of the Church. Or maybe it’s a helmeted centurion — a hint of the coming Crucifixion.

The next painting is of an adult John the Baptist. He’s sitting against a rock face with his legs in a somewhat unnatural position.





John’s hand points to our right — and to the unseen half of Leonardo’s secret:





The meaning of this lurid image will be immediately obvious to those familiar with tantric iconography. This is an image of creation. The rock face has become the Tree of Life. Beneath it, Adam and Eve are engaged in coitus. Welcome to the Garden of Eden.

Coincidence? Judge for yourself at the Mirror Foundation’s website. You’ll find Flash animations revealing similar mirror images in dozens of famous sacred works, including Michaelangelo’s David and Pieta. It’s cooler than the da Vinci Code.


http://www.mirrorandart.com/

[gasper]

Originally Posted by stryker

I hate to burst your bubble, but Darth Vader wasn't around until AFTER da Vinci, so your theory is bust.

[Krzysiu]

Peter was a rabbit!

[I_bRAD]

[stryker]

Originally Posted by gasper

I hate to burst your bubble, but Darth Vader wasn't around until AFTER da Vinci, so your theory is bust.

Darth Vinci......bah dum bum

[Stan]

I don't see anything bizarre, obscene or disturbing in those hidden images. Now, if he had hidden 2girls1cup in Mona Lisa, that would be something.

[Krzysiu]

if mona lisa was real... would you have sex with her?

[OTIS]

EAUMG!

That's TOTALY creepy.

Here's another from some totally random victorian painting...


original





MIRRARED!!!

[mr tall]

another jaffee zinger

[mr tall]

I call this piece Karate Stick



"Here it is."

[mr tall]

"Ok you got me I left the Karate Stick in my room, but it's right up there I can get it in like 3 seconds, mess you up."

[Rajio]

If you mirror the arnolfini wedding portrait it is gay marriage propaganda!

[dig this]

Music 'hidden' in Last Supper art

A computer technician has claimed to have cracked a real Da Vinci code, by finding musical notes encoded in the masterpiece The Last Supper.
Leonardo Da Vinci left clues to a 40-second musical composition in his painting, Giovanni Maria Pala said.

Each loaf of bread in the picture represents a note, he said, which combine to sound "like a requiem".

Alessandro Vezzosi, director of Tuscany's Da Vinci museum, said the theory was "plausible".

The 15th century painting depicts Jesus' last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion.

'Emphasises passion'

Mr Pala found that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on the table and the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent a musical note.

The notes make sense musically when the resulting score is read from right to left, following Da Vinci's own writing style, Mr Pala said in his book La Musica Celata (The Hidden Music).

The result is a 40-second "hymn to God" which Mr Pala described as "like a soundtrack that emphasises the passion of Jesus".

Mr Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in the painter's home town Vinci, said that while Da Vinci was noted for his paintings, sculptures and inventions, he was also a musician.

"There's always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it's certain that the spaces (in the painting) are divided harmonically," he said.

"Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music."

BBC

[KillaLadY]

This is like a medieval shocker.

[mr tall]

he forgot the stick again

[stryker]

Originally Posted by OTIS

EAUMG!

That's TOTALY creepy.

Here's another from some totally random victorian painting...





MIRRARED!!!

i wish i had a monacle...

[stir-fry]

Originally Posted by Krzysiu

Peter was a rabbit!

<3 <3 <3 <3
just watched this one last night.

[spaboy]

Shocking!

[le bricoleur]

i have that issue of mad magazine.

[Ms. Fit]

Originally Posted by KillaLadY

This is like a medieval shocker.

so while we're on the subject, can someone explain to me while there are so many paintings in that era of little baby jesuses giving the (semi-)shocker?!

[DJ_Science]

Originally Posted by Krzysiu

Peter was a rabbit!

My thoughts exactly.

[d.code]

Got home from work to find construction has started on tearing down the west wing of the building. Also- the construction people are fuck nut idiots.

There were LIVE high voltage wires laying right infront of my door way. Which is metal. I was standing infront of my place wondering how the fuck Im going to get inside when one of the workers came out and started yelling at me "Hey- you can't be back here! Those are live wires get out of here!".

So I then had to explain to him that the giant "134" painted on the door wasn't just for decoration- it was the front door to place. He then tried to tell me that I should just be using the other entrence in. What fuckin entrence?!?!? This is my only door! So I had to wait while they moved the wires huffing and puffing.

Not 10 minutes later a small bobcat knocked over the abandon play ground slide next to my door blocking my front door.


god damn Bohemian Embassy.

It will be nice when the W lofts go up though. Id preffer to look out my window at the big empty field and the "urban scar" that is the graffiti covered walls, train tracks, abandon used auto lot and other random things- but the W lofts will put a park directly across from my door which is nice.

[Rajio]

wtf r u talking about?

[d.code]

oops.

i thought this was nc.

[why not]

Originally Posted by d.code

oops.

i thought this was nc.

i can't decide if you're being honest, or if this was a complicated and subtle way of making fun of this thread.


ps: bobcat? really?