Davinci - Mona Lisa

DAVINCI - MONA LISA

1503-1506
Mona riding the pale horse
Click on Mona to see the map

- You can read Mona (Monna) like a map.
- Acquired by King Francis I of France and now property of the French Republic.
- Kept at the Palace of Fontainebleau until Louis XIV moved her to the Palace of Versailles, where she remained until the French Revolution.
- She's been in the Louvre Museum (Musée) in Paris since 1797.
- Painted from 1503-1506 and possibly again from 1513 to 1517.
- Missing between 1911 and 1914 (stolen).
- Lombardy poplar wood panel.
- No one has figured out how the paint was applied, it's unlike anything ever seen in artwork, very thin layers.
- Italian Renaissance pozzetto (cockpit/manhole/shaft/little well) chair.
- Crone.

Maurizio Calvesi wrote an essay in 1986 called 'Arte e Alchimia' regarding the androgynous quality of the Mona Lisa. For Calvesi, the Mona Lisa is an ideal representation of the mystical and symbolic union of the male and female elements that reside in our soul, a fundamental concept of alchemy, rendered visable in an immortal masterpiece. The theme of union of opposites recurs with frequency in the writings of Leonardo. (Diego Crociani and Caterina Marrone)

1503-1506

- Young Mona is even easier to read like a map (Prado).
- Long neck, turtle neck.
- Headless horseman.
- Inner smile.
- Father's eyes.
- Younger twin sister from Madrid.
- Painted in parallel to the original on a second easel (possibly Salai or Melzi).
- Different spaces, different places.
- Has a different outlook, eye view (angle).
- High Priestess in the Tarot deck (pillars of Boaz and Jachin).
- Her veil of black painted background was removed (someone had painted her black).
- Stereoscope.
- Signed in left bottom corner as 666 (Divine feminine).
- Mother.

She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 3:15)

Wounded horse

- Florida missing foot.
- Arrow in the leg.
- Louisiana missing leg, just a shadow of himself.

With you I shatter the horse and his rider, And with you I shatter the chariot and its rider. (Jeremiah 51:21)

Puzzle pieces

- Mona.s smile has mystified viewers for centuries, not because of its mystery, but what it might conceal.
- While most see an enigmatic portrait, those familiar with the occult symbolism recognize something far deeper lurking between the surface.
- That subtle, almost elusive smile isn't just an artistic brilliance, sits a deliberate cipher, one that Renaissance initiates would have understood.

Enigma

- Some scholars believe her expression embodies the alchemical concept of dualism, the union of opposites.
- Where joy and sorrow, light and shadow, exist in perfect balance.
- This wasn't just a stylistic choice, it mirrored the Hermetic principle, 'As above, so below.'
- Da Vinci who filled his notebooks with alchemical studies, likely intended her ambiguous expression as a visual paradox, a challenge to the viewer to reconcile contridictions, much like the pursuit of the philosopher's stone.
- Perhaps the most fascinating is the way her smile shifts depending on where you focus, a phenomenon, some attribute to Da Vinci's mastery of sfumato, the smoky blending of tones.

Sfumato is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was the most prominent practitioner of sfumato, based on his research in optics and human vision, and his experimentation with the camera obscura. He introduced it and implemented it in many of his works. (Assistant)

Serene

- Then there's a theory that she was not a merchant's wife, but a veiled representation of the divine feminine.
- Her seated pose, with hands folded serenely, echoes an ancient depiction of goddesses like Isis or Sophia, the embodiment of wisdom.
- The faint, almost otherworldly glow around her figure has led some to speculate that Da Vinci infused the painting with luminous techniques reserved for sacred icons.
- This hints as her role as a bridge between earthly and celestial realms.

To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. (Proverbs 1:6)

Winding road

- And what of the winding dreamlike landscape behind her?
- Those jagged rivers and winding rivers aren't random.
- To Renaissance mystics, such formations symbolized the souls' journey, twisting paths leading toward enlightenment.
- The two vanishing points in the background, one higher than the other, could represent the duality of human and divine knowledge.
- Even the bridge in the distance might be more than scenic detail.
- In esoteric art, bridges often signify transition, the passage from ignorance to revelation.

Trained eye

- But could Mona also be a deliberate metaphor?
- Just the truth remains elusive to the untrained eye, so too does the full meaning of her expression reveal itself only to those who know how to look.
- Da Vinci didn't paint a woman, he painted a mirror, one that reflects back whatever wisdom the viewer brings to it.

Shannon1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hudson River Basin

- Cloak and dagger.
- Sleepy Hollow.
- Ichabod Crane tormented by a terrifying headless horseman that may or may not have been his rival riding with a pumpkin “head” on his saddle and then apparently vanishing off the face of the earth, leaving behind his horse, his saddle, and a shattered pumpkin.

From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by name of Sleepy Hollow ... A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.. (Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow")

Eternal Flame Falls
Shale Ridge Park - Western New York
Mpmajewski, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

- Already lit.
- Twins!
- Jesus Christ as twin flame.

If, then, all your body is light, with no part of it dark, it will be completely full of light, as when a flame with its bright shining gives you light. (Luke 11:36)

Sun - coronal hole

- Aurora alert.
- Cleansing and purification.

Hairpin

- Multispectral camera (LAM) discovers Mona's hairpin.
- Allegory for justice or goodness, goddess.

- 2024 is the year of the 8.
- A 1-inch-by-4-inch section of the painting depicts embroidered interlocking knots.

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 3:3)

Storseisundet Bridge - Norway

- Prago Mona shoulders the Storseisundet Bridge.

Storseisundet Bridge - Norway
Lofoten Islands

- Atlantic Ocean Road.
- It's all in the angles.
- Optical illusion going on.

Cantilever Bridge

- DaVinci invention.
- 7 generations back, 7 generations ahead.
- Heptameter.
- Lessons from the past.

There are many different kinds of bridges in this world. Some are wooden, some are stone, and others are fabricated of steel. Some are small some are massive, but they all function basically the same way. They span a chasm. (I Corinthians 9:16-23)