Is There a Real Da Vinci Code?
If you’re old enough, you probably remember a book, and later film, called The Da Vinci Code. In 2005 I came across this picture (detail) by Leonardo in a book. Can you guess what is going on here?
It only takes two points to indicate a hexagon grid; this compass is at the Rembrandt House Museum.
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So I tried it; hardly conclusive, but the left foot was suggestive, so I started looking for people pointing in paintings. I think a lot are composed in this way. In Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship (1948), Salvador Dali talks about using large compasses: As I do not wish you to spend days and killing hours which you might devote to painting at your mathematical calculations, I shall now reveal to you the secret of the compass—and this is Secret Number 47—by means of which you will be able automatically to find as many golden sections as you wish, without having recourse to the painful geometric operation for which you often need an immense compass, requiring that you go beyond the area of your painting, and this is often so inconvenient that your laziness will counsel you at last to get along without such a proportion... And the fact that such compasses are not currently for sale at paint dealers is but the proof of the lack of geometric rigor of schools of art, and of modern painters in particular. |
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Leda Atomica (1949); this one is a pentagon, not a hexagon, but it shows his approach
Philip Otto Runge, Morning, 1808. There is a small star, or presumably Venus,
obscured by lines that was the second point used to get the grid.
obscured by lines that was the second point used to get the grid.
Unknown artist, Florence
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This is Odd Nerdrum, maybe the greatest living painter. I contacted his son and asked about the geometry, he asked his dad and came back with “yes.”
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Francesco Salviati, Charity (1544-48). Note the eye-in-the-triangle motif.
Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil (1513); it’s only about 9 ½ inches tall, remarkable for an engraving.
In The Painter's Manual (1525) Dürer wrote:
Considering, however, that this is the true foundation for all painting, I have proposed myself to propound the elements for the use of all eager students of Art, and to instruct them how they may employ a system of Measurement with Rule and Compass, and thereby learn to recognize the real Truth, seeing it before their eyes.
Michelangelo thought Dürer's reliance on geometry excessive, and is reported by Vasari (The Lives of the Artists, 1550) to have said "It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges."
Albrecht Dürer, Christ among the Doctors (1506)
Jean Auguste Dominique Inges, The Golden Age (detail) (1862)
“I began from the background, with the architecture. Once the lines were marked out, I called all my figures, one by one, and they came obediently to take their places in the perspective.” Ingres, quoted in Charles Blanc, Ingres, sa vie et ses ouvrages (1870)
Raphael, School of Athens (detail) (1509-11)
"When you want to draw on a wall, first level the surface and then attach pieces of wood to the legs of a pair of metal compasses, to make them as long as you want, and tie a brush to one end so that you can mark with color the proportions of the figure and describe their halos. When you have marked the proportions of the figure, take some ochre and draw first with a watery solution.
Dionysius of Fourna,
Painter's Manual (1730-34)
With larger paintings, I wondered how it was done, and realized you would only need a piece of string and chalk; you would just mark the circumference, then chalk up the string and snap it on the canvas, probably on the floor, to get a grid.
Dionysius of Fourna,
Painter's Manual (1730-34)
With larger paintings, I wondered how it was done, and realized you would only need a piece of string and chalk; you would just mark the circumference, then chalk up the string and snap it on the canvas, probably on the floor, to get a grid.
Forge of Vulcan, Giorgio Vasari (1565)
Venus doing her thing, Guercino (1622-23)
Holy Family with Mary Magdalene, Palma Vecchio (1520)
When I posted these, people asked me “what does it mean?” I don’t know, but whoever is doing the crop circles (God?) apparently likes the shape.
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Hexagon on Saturn
Édouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1862-63)
The Young Philosopher, Boilly. He’s not sure about this family thing
with the dolls and baby and drum. Eye-in-the-triangle.
with the dolls and baby and drum. Eye-in-the-triangle.
Guido Reni
Joseph Wright of Derby
Artist unknown
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Seurat (1884). There are two fingers visible, one holding a cigar and one holding a pipe. Get a compass and figure it out, there are many more.
