From mysterious numbers encoded by the most famous artist of all time to an effective
middle-finger in a religious masterpiece, today we look at 10 Secret Messages Hidden
in Famous Paintings!
Number 10.
Hidden Hymn One of the world’s most analyzed paintings
still holds secrets we are just now discovering.
Painted between 1494 and 1498, Leonardo DaVinci’s depiction of Jesus Christ’s "Last Supper"
has even been the premise for Hollywood’s "The DaVinci Code," the fictional plot of
which revolves around the mysterious codes purportedly hidden in this very famous work
. In real life, Giovanni Maria Pala, a 45-year-old musician and computer technician from Lecce,
Italy, has uncovered a musical composition, based on the placement of the loaves of bread
and the position of Jesus and the Apostles’ hands in the picture.
By superimposing the five lines of the musical staff over the painting, Giovanni was able
to see a harmonic musical structure.
Other elements of the image gave him clues to the rhythm of the piece.
Giovanni describes the music as sounding like a requiem, a solemn composition for the dead.
A telling bit of evidence that DaVinci intended this as a secret code is that the music must
be read from right to left, in just the same unique way that Leonardo wrote in mirror image
for his secret diaries.
Number 9.
Secret Brain In is teens, Michelangelo wanted so much to
depict the human figure accurately that he began exhuming corpses from the church graveyard.
He would dissect them to draw their parts from life, so to speak.
He later destroyed all his records and sketches, but he left his anatomical knowledge for us
to decode in his greatest accomplishment, the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo encoded an anatomically correct representation of the human brain into the
central fresco panel of his "God Creating Adam" Sistine Chapel painting, behind and
surrounding the image of God reaching out to touch Adam’s finger.
The outline of the brain is here, and the brain’s components, such as the cerebellum,
pituitary gland, and optic chiasm are all depicted using the folds and wrinkles in God’s
cloak.
It is all there, just as a young Michelangelo would have seen for himself in his churchyard
cadavers.
What message is Michelangelo’s code sending?
Is God granting Adam intelligence in addition to life?
Is Adam creating God through his brain?
We can’t ask Michelangelo so unfortunately we'll never know.
Number 8.
Madonna, Child, and UFO An intriguing painting entitled "The Madonna
with Saint Giovanni" is thought to have been painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio, a contemporary
of Botticelli.
Born in Florence, he lived from 1448-1494, during the Italian Renaissance.
Michelangelo himself was once an apprentice in Ghirlandaio’s shop.
"The Madonna with Saint Giovanni" is a rather typical Madonna image, with Our Lady kneeling,
hands together in supplication to an infant on the ground, the infant protected from the
floor by the Madonna’s red gown.
Into this ordinary, worshipful scene is injected what appears to be a flying object in the
sky.
It has mass, shape, and substance.
There are structural details on the object’s surface.
In modern times, like now, the first thing we must ask ourselves is: "is it a spaceship?"
The mystery object is artistically positioned to be noticed.
It is centered in the top right quarter of the painting, just behind the Madonna, perfectly
framed.
The viewer’s eye is instinctively drawn to it, as though it is the most important
object in the picture.
If so, what is the meaning of this code?
Some suggest space aliens; others are more likely to think it is an awkward portrayal
of a star or other heavenly body.
Number 7.
Allegory of Spring In 1482, during the Italian Renaissance, Sandro
Botticelli created what has been called one of the most controversial paintings in history,
his Allegory of Spring, known as Primavera.
Commissioned by a wealthy and powerful Medici family, the painting is now in the Uffizi
Galleria in Florence, Italy.
The immense work resembles a kind of Flemish tapestry popular during the period.
Presented in the piece are nine near life-sized mythological gods and goddesses gathered in
a fruit grove.
Zephyrus grasps a fleeing and fecund Chloris — the goddess of Spring — looking back
in fright.
Cupid points his bow and arrow at a trio of dancing Graces, dressed in sheer white veils.
Young Mercury stands guard with his sword.
Flora, with a flowered dress, walks through the idyllic crowd with a wistful look.
Venus, the tall, central figure in blue, gazes introspectively as the action circles around
her.
Philosophically, the Medici were Neoplatonists.
Their belief was that Venus ruled over divine love.
They viewed her as a classical equivalent to the Virgin Mary regarding what we call
holy or platonic love, as opposed to carnal love.
This is coded in the painting by the framing of Venus in the center, as in an altar.
Meanwhile, in the background of the image, the attention to horticultural detail is astounding.
The scene accurately portrays over 500 scientifically identified species of plants, including 190
different species of flowers, 130 species of which have been identified by name.
The time spent encoding these plants so carefully into this work clearly shows intent to pass
along an important message to someone.
Who?
Number 6.
Supper In The Café Vincent Van Gogh’s "Café Terrace at Night,"
painted in 1888, reveals on the surface a simple outdoor French restaurant with seated
guests and a central server.
It is a starry night, and the plaza has little traffic.
The bright yellow and orange café is mostly empty, save for the 12 patrons.
12?
Upon closer examination, the server appears to have long hair.
Off to the left, halfway out the door, is a dark figure, escaping the scene.
Jared Baxter, researcher and lecturer, reads these codes as being an intentional tribute
to Da Vinci’s "Last Supper," with Jesus — wearing a white tunic — serving the
12 Apostles, and with Judas leaving the scene to betray Jesus to the Romans.
Further analysis of the image shows the existence of multiple crosses, including one prominent
cross figure in the large window just behind the server.
The painting’s artistic style is now known as "Sacred Realism."
Two weeks after painting the "Café," Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about his "terrible
need for — dare I say the word — for religion."
He worked to encode religious symbolism into his art throughout his entire career.
Number 5.
Giving A Fig To "give someone the fig" is an obscene gesture
equivalent to the middle finger in America.
It shows a severe lack of respect.
Michelangelo coded "the fig" itself into the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Pope Julius II engaged Michelangelo to design and construct his Pope-worthy tomb in 1505.
It was a monumental task that would end up taking 40 years.
Michelangelo began the job, spent a year importing marble, produced over 40 statues; then Pope
Julius stopped paying him.
Michelangelo was quite angry and felt very disrespected, but he continued.
Even as he remained working on the Pope’s tomb without pay, it was Julius II who commissioned
Michelangelo to paint the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
They argued.
They fought.
They disagreed.
But in the end, Michelangelo consented to design and paint the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel.
But there remained unsettling matters between the two men.
Michelangelo had some thoughts about how to handle the situation.
A tantalizing idea involved the image of the Prophet Zechariah, accompanied by two angels
over his left shoulder.
As the Prophet Zechariah reads a book, rendered by Michelangelo as a life-like portrait of
Pope Julius II, one of the two angels behind him puts his right arm around the other angel’s
shoulder, droops his right index finger down, and sticks his thumb in-between his index
finger and his middle finger.
This hand gesture is what is known as "giving the fig."
It was as clear to others back then as "giving the finger" is now.
But Michelangelo’s artistic genius makes the gesture as subtle as a gentle breeze.
If Pope Julius ever noticed, he didn’t mention it publicly or in his writing.
As far as we know, Michelangelo got paid for the Sistine Chapel.
Number 4.
El Autobus In 1925, Frida Kahlo was impaled on a metal
handrail when a bus in which she was riding crashed head-on into a trolly car.
A blue-collar worker pulled the metal rail from her body.
Her artwork often suggested that merely surviving that horrible accident was a miracle.
She suffered ever afterward.
Kahlo’s "El Autobus" portrays five adults and one child on a bus.
They are seated on a bench side by side, facing the viewer, except the child, a boy, kneeling
and facing backward out the window.
There is nothing remarkable about this scene, but it is captivating.
The mood is striking.
It is not ominous.
It is peaceful.
Ordinary.
Normal.
In moments from this peaceful scene some of them will be torn apart forever.
Is that her secret message?
Number 3.
Crossroads Of Control Mexican artist and muralist Diego Rivera held
a successful retrospective in 1931 which led to several works, including one in New York
City.
In 1933, the Rockefeller Center commissioned "Man at the Crossroads," and it was immediately
controversial.
Rivera had created a work that featured communist Vladimir Lenin in a central role.
Wealthy American capitalist — and Rivera’s patron — Nelson Rockefeller, Jr., demanded
of Rivera that Lenin be removed from the unfinished mural on Rockefeller Center’s walls.
Rivera refused.
Rockefeller paid Rivera in full for his work on the incomplete project and dismissed him,
then destroyed the mural.
But Rivera wasn’t finished.
Less than ten months after Rockefeller’s destruction of "Man at the Crossroads," Rivera
unveiled an enormous 15.75’ x 37.5’ mural entitled "Man, Controller of the Universe"
at the opening of the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
The mural, completed in 1934, still survives today.
Again, Rivera’s new mural compares and contrasts the politics of communism and capitalism through
the use of images, iconography, and symbolism.
In this mural, the worker is central to the composition and the message.
Resurrected are Lenin, Trotsky, and Marx.
Where it gets personal is in his portrayal of the capitalistic wealthy, represented by
Nelson Rockefeller, Jr., himself.
Rockefeller, a married man who didn’t drink, is seen in a bar with alcohol, associating
with a woman, and pictured with a dish of syphilis bacteria floating above his head.
Diego Rivera’s codes are easy to decipher.
Number 2.
Proverbs In 1559, on a panel only 3.8 feet by 5.3 feet
Pieter Bruegel the Elder set out to encode the folly of the world.
Using oils, Bruegel painted at least 112 recognizable, literal illustrations of Dutch idioms and
proverbs.
Flemish proverb illustration collections were popular for over a century before Bruegel
created his largest work on the subject, most well-known as "Netherlandish Proverbs."
We still use many of these proverbs and idioms today, translated into English.
Picture "swimming against the tide."
Bruegel painted exactly that.
Or, "banging one’s head against the wall."
He illustrated that, too.
"Armed to the teeth."
"The die is cast."
Some well-known phrases, such as from the Bible, are not translated exactly, such as
"casting roses before swine."
Other phrases are simply lost in translation, like "the herring doesn’t fry here," meaning
"it’s not going according to plan."
It is nearly impossible for a modern English speaker to derive this meaning from the literal
depiction on the painting today.
But the code is still there to be broken.
Other codes depicted require knowledge of the contemporary customs and traditions.
One alternate title for the "Netherlandish Proverbs" is "The Blue Cloak," a story about
a man who places a blue cloak upon his wife on horseback, indicating to the village that
she is cuckolding him.
Another idiom of the time is "to marry under the broomstick," which means to live together
without the sanctity of marriage.
To trick someone is to "shave the fool without lather," and to be in terrible distress is
to "run like one’s backside is on fire."
So, don’t "gaze at the stork" and waste your time.
Try to "kill two flies with one stroke" and be efficient so that you don’t "fall from
the ox onto the rear end of a donkey."
That means hard times.
Number 1.
Paint By Numbers The artistic King of Codes -- Leonardo Da
Vinci -- seems to have hidden secrets almost everywhere in almost all of his pictures.
In this case, a microscope is required to read the codes hidden in one of the most famous
and enigmatic paintings in the world.
Art historians say they have found tiny letters and numerals inside the very eyes of the "Mona
Lisa."
Her right eye must be magnified many times over to see the letters "LV."
Zoom in on her left eye to see various symbols, not clearly defined, possibly "B" or "CE."
Appearing on a bridge arch behind Mona Lisa seems to be the number "72," although some
say it could be "L2."
The 500-year age of the painting doesn't make it any easier to see the various markings,
but Silvano Vinceti, President of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage,
is "confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist."
But for what purpose?
And for whom?