Da Vinci Code and the Ca t(chapter 32)
Dear Mouse,
Brown wrote:
Da Vinci's original commission for Madonna on the Rocks had come from an organization known as Confraternity of the Immaculate Concepction..
The nuns gave specific dimensions ... the Virgin Mary, Baby John the Baptist, Uriel and Baby Jesus.
When he delivered the work, the group reacted with horror. He had filled the painting with explosive and disturbing details.
This is the original painting mentioned in the novel entitled Virgin of the Rocks painted in c 1483 to 86 and is now in Musee de Louvre, Paris.
Read what Brown wrote about it:
The painting showed a blue-robed Virgin Mary sitting with her arm around an infant presumably Baby Jesus. Opposite Virgin Mary sat Uriel,also with an infant, presumably Baby John the Baptist. Oddly though rather than the usual Jesus-blessing-John-scenario, it was baby John who was blessing Jesus...and Jesus submitting to his authority. Mary was holding one hand high above the head of the infant John and making a decidedly threatening gesture-her fingers looking like eagle's talons.
Just below the curled fingers, Uriel was making a gesture with his hand-as if slicing a neck of the invisible head gripped by Mary's claw-like hand.
The Ca t sez:
Brown should know that it was the same scenario repeated in the baptism of Jesus by John when they met again as adults.
Instead of Jesus, baptizing John,he meekly submitted to his cousin's authority.
In fact, the second painting of Da Vinci showed no change exceptfor the addition of halos to Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus and St. John in order to show their superior divinity over the angel and a cross to identify who Baby Jesus was in the painting.
Virgin of the Rocks
c 1495-1508
National Gallery, London
The disturbing hands insinuating the mischievous side of Da Vinci were removed.Personally, I do not bite that "dark side", since Da Vinci's "hands" in all his paintings were all similar;feminine with long, tapered fingers.Take a look at St. John's finger.
But of course, it is just a novel.
The Ca t
posted by cathy @ 1/07/2005 02:14:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Interesting observations, Cath. But you are correct. Readers should remember that Brown's book is fictional and nothing more. If you're also an Umberto Eco fan, you'd know that he lavishes his works with supposed-to-be factual details like Brown, but tones down on subjective interpretation. Brown, however, I think is a cross between Clancy and Eco. I don't blame him. He has to sell his books. And he did! It broke some book selling records, right? Not as grand and Faustian as the 6-books-per-second-sales of JK Rowling, but good enough to burn the book charts.
I agree with you. Nothing unusual about the Da Vinci paintings.
___________
OFF-TOPIC: On voting again, Cath. I have sent you email on my a post I did 2 days ago, titled A MISUNDERSTANDING. The link is: http://emeritus.blogspot.com/2005/01/misunderstanding-since-dr.html
Please read that. Please. It tells you where all the confusion began.
I don't know if it missed your inbox or whether you read your mails too irregularly. I would like to believe it is the latter.
Do you have a preferred email other than GMail? If you wouldn't mind, kindly let me know what it is. You know my GMail account, right? It's emeritus. Your blogging berks are all wondering why you don't respond to their emails lately. Polo of Sassy, in particular, has repeatedly requested me to invite you to berks, but I told him you're not responding.
Interesting observations, Cath. But you are correct. Readers should remember that Brown's book is fictional and nothing more. If you're also an Umberto Eco fan, you'd know that he lavishes his works with supposed-to-be factual details like Brown, but tones down on subjective interpretation. Brown, however, I think is a cross between Clancy and Eco. I don't blame him. He has to sell his books. And he did! It broke some book selling records, right? Not as grand and Faustian as the 6-books-per-second-sales of JK Rowling, but good enough to burn the book charts.
I agree with you. Nothing unusual about the Da Vinci paintings.
___________
OFF-TOPIC: On voting again, Cath. I have sent you email on my a post I did 2 days ago, titled A MISUNDERSTANDING. The link is: http://emeritus.blogspot.com/2005/01/misunderstanding-since-dr.html
Please read that. Please. It tells you where all the confusion began.
I don't know if it missed your inbox or whether you read your mails too irregularly. I would like to believe it is the latter.
Do you have a preferred email other than GMail? If you wouldn't mind, kindly let me know what it is. You know my GMail account, right? It's emeritus. Your blogging berks are all wondering why you don't respond to their emails lately. Polo of Sassy, in particular, has repeatedly requested me to invite you to berks, but I told him you're not responding.
Hello Ca T. It seems like I let pass a good opportunity when a colleague lent me a copy of the book but I was only able to read the first two chapters. My wife had more time to read then, and she said it was good. Disturbing, but good. Shall I wait for the movie instead ...?
Bilib ako kay Dan Brown if only for the fact that he was able to pull off a lot of tricks with the reader's mind.
The beauty of art is that you are left with your own interpretation. All you need do is to make the pieces fit. Sometimes, we read beyond what the artist intended ant that's the fun of it. There are a lot of myths about Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. No doubt, he was a genius but sometimes, we do go beyond what is to be expected.
been reading the da vinci code a few months ago.. hehe.. after reading i've been reading some things on the internet like da vinci's works and something about wordplay.. =)
with your post, i am getting interested in reading that book. but i still need to finish Anne Rice's Blood canticle first.
but of course, I must understand that it is just a novel, an art of work to make our thinking process work to the maximum.
Well done on a nice blog c hy. I was searching for information on Leonardo da Vinci biography and came across your post Da Vinci Code and the Ca t(chapter 32) - not quite what I was looking for related to Leonardo da Vinci biography but very interesting all the same!
Well we're already into 2006 and I wish you all the best. I'm doing a lot of original work on Leonardo, including looking in detail at the technical drawings of machines and human anatomy. We're also publishing a detailed analysis of the Last Supper and Annunciation, which should be quite interesting.
If you do have a moment, please take a look at our latest galery on: Leonardo da Vinci .
Wishing you well in the new year! Amon
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