| Chapter 1: | The Da Vinci Code Controversy |
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Box 1. A Mirror for Leonardo
| Some analysts maintain that Leonardo da Vinci used mirrored images as a guidepost to successful painting. Lillian Schwartz (1992) digitized likenesses of Leonardo as seen in his self-portrait and compared them with the facial structure seen in the artist’s Mona Lisa. |
| Schwartz submitted that, by flipping the self-portrait, the image of Mona Lisaprovided a near-mirror-image of Leonardo himself. |
| Mark Harden’s “Artchive” online provides an interpretation of the philosophy of Leonardo on the topic of painting, to include the sub- ject of reflected images. The Renaissance man’s writings, according to the Artchive, say this: |
| To see if your painting conforms to what you are depicting, take a mirror and look at the reflection of the model in it, then compare this reflection with your painting, and examine closely the entire surface to see if the two objects are similar. Since the mirror can, through line, light and shadow create an illusion of relief… your work will doubtless appear similar to reality as seen in a large mirror. |
| This brings the inquisitive back to the question of who Mona Lisa was in reality and whether she could be a manifestation not only of Leonardo’s mirror but be a “Da Vinciobject code” herself. |
| Schwartz, L. (1992). The Computer Artist’s Handbook(1st ed.). New York: Norton & Co. The Artchive material derives from http://www.artchive.com/ artchive/L/leonardo/leonardo_notes.html, retrieved on August 20, 2006. |