What's In Yer Painting?

The world of "hidden" things is very appealing to this mind. Gotta be careful, though, to not see something hidden in *everything* ... because that's a little nutty; however ... if the shoe fits! lol There is so much that we don't know about how the Universe works, how our brains work, and how our souls work. The little mermaid in the orchid got me thinking about a nature photo site I used to look at every so often. It featured photos taken in nature (forests, streams, clouds) that contained interesting "hidden" faces, objects, symbols. It was fascinating but, unfortunately, I've lost the link. However, in searching ... I discovered a very interesting article at a place called "Snarfed" with the following discussion:

The Bizarre, Obscene, and Disturbing Hidden Images in Leonardo da Vinci’s Sacred Art
By Chris Baskind • Published November 28th, 2007 •
Departments: Art

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 Argentine 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.







I took a look at the "Mirror" website. Link is here: MIRROR . You'll have to click on "English" on the web page (left hand side column.)

It's a fascinating website. I also took a look at the Last Supper article and images. You can go see it yourself, but just a note on that Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci: The apostle depicted toward the left shoulder of Jesus (half-profile) has his fingers shown in a pose/symbol that is highly reminiscent of the American Sign Language short-cut for "GOD BLESS" and/or the regular way we all would show "#1" with our hands. The above article also notes that Anne's hand is painted in similar fashion, as was a "DaVinci Style" pose in many paintings.