thedailywhat: Cracked Da Vinci Code of the Day: An American artist claims to have cracked the code of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa — for real, this time. Ron Piccirillo, a 37-year-old oil painter and graphic designer, says he used “an old artist’s trick” to gain a fresh perspective on the famous painting by turning it on its side. He claims that in doing so, images of various animals hidden in the portrait’s background began to emerge. First, a lion’s head came into focus above the subject’s head. “Then I noticed the buffalo and I thought: ‘Oh my god’,” he says. “Then I realised I was really onto something.” Piccirillo believes the veiled menagerie — he later discovered an ape and a crocodile-snake creature as well — suggests da Vinci meant the Mona Lisa to depict envy. Piccirillo points to a passage in da Vinci’s journals which he says confirms his theory. In the passage, da Vinci writes that the artist who wishes to paint envy must “give her a leopard’s skin, because this creature kills the lion out of envy and by deceit.” Piccirillo claims other passages on envy in da Vinci’s notes also indicate that he is referring to the Mona Lisa. “It is beyond coincidence to have identified these hidden images after finding references to them in Leonardo’s own writings,” Piccirillo said. [telegraph / image: mirror.]  I don’t see any animals!!

thedailywhat:

Cracked Da Vinci Code of the Day: An American artist claims to have cracked the code of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa — for real, this time.

Ron Piccirillo, a 37-year-old oil painter and graphic designer, says he used “an old artist’s trick” to gain a fresh perspective on the famous painting by turning it on its side. He claims that in doing so, images of various animals hidden in the portrait’s background began to emerge.

First, a lion’s head came into focus above the subject’s head. “Then I noticed the buffalo and I thought: ‘Oh my god’,” he says. “Then I realised I was really onto something.”

Piccirillo believes the veiled menagerie — he later discovered an ape and a crocodile-snake creature as well — suggests da Vinci meant the Mona Lisa to depict envy. Piccirillo points to a passage in da Vinci’s journals which he says confirms his theory.

In the passage, da Vinci writes that the artist who wishes to paint envy must “give her a leopard’s skin, because this creature kills the lion out of envy and by deceit.” Piccirillo claims other passages on envy in da Vinci’s notes also indicate that he is referring to the Mona Lisa.

“It is beyond coincidence to have identified these hidden images after finding references to them in Leonardo’s own writings,” Piccirillo said.

[telegraph / image: mirror.]

 I don’t see any animals!!

Notes

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    why does there have to be a meaning/code? can’t it just be a painting?
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