The Da Vinci Code Online

In Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code”, Sophie Neveu discovers an important clue behind the Da Vinci painting, “Madonna of the Rocks”. Facing an armed guard in the Louvre gallery, Sophie proceeds to use the painting as a guarantee of safety.

In 1483 Da Vinci’s was commissioned to paint the “Madonna of the Rocks” by the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, an organisation dedicated to honouring Mary. The painting was to be the centerpiece of an altar triptych in their church of San Francesco Grand in Milan, and would need to be done in time for December 1483, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The contract specified that the picture should comprise of the “Virgin and Child, two prophets, and angels.” The de Predis brothers, Milanese painters, would be responsible for the angels on either side of the centre piece.

Apparently the Confraternity was not happy Da Vinci’s result. He missed the deadline. He featured John the Baptist as the prophet. Instead of the typical throne or architectural setting Da Vinci had used a cave as setting. It was difficult to tell which child was Jesus and which was John. There was some confusion as to the meaning of hand gestures, such as the angel Uriel pointing at John. In fact the angel appears to have a sphinx-like body. The Confraternity did not keep the painting and so it ended up being sold in a private deal in the 1490s, finally being hung in the Louvre as “Madonna of the Rocks”.

The Confraternity commissioned Da Vinci and his colleague, Ambrogio de Predis, to paint a second version, this time with more clarity. John would hold a long reedy cross. Mary and Jesus would have halos over their heads. Uriel would not point.

Between 1506 and 1508, while living in Florence, Da Vinci eventually painted the second version of Madonna of the Rocks. It is likely that Da Vinci had some help from students in his studio. The new painting was hung in the Milanese doorway but now hangs in London’s National Gallery under the name Virgin of the Rocks. The second painting brings the figures closer to the viewer, portraying a High Renaissance style. The full name of this painting is “The Virgin with the Infant Saint John adoring the Infant Christ accompanied by an Angel”.

The National Gallery recently used infrared reflectography to find two distinct underdrawings beneath the surface of the ‘Virgin of the Rocks’. One of the drawings indicates that Da Vinci had first thought to portray Mary kneeling in adoration of the baby Jesus.

A similar painting hangs above the altar in the left nave of Santa Giustina Church in Affori, on the outskirts of Milan. For many years it was thought that this was just a copy. In recent years art critics have considered the possibility that this painting was created by de Predis after Da Vinci’s first painting was rejected and before the second one was accepted.

See the Marians of the Immaculate Conception web site for a present-day example of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, “Mona Lisa” features significantly in Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code. Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu are drawn to a private viewing of the painting by clues left by Sauniere. Langdon reflects on a seminar recently given at Essex County Penitentiary (New Jersey) in which he presented his theory on the painting’s connection to the Egyptian gods, Amon and Lisa (Isis), an anagram of ‘Mona Lisa’.

The painting was started by Da Vinci in 1503 and finished in 1506/1507. Da Vinci took the painting with him to France when working with King Francois I. Francois bought the painting, starting a strong association of the painting with the French people.

The painting was not named ‘Mona Lisa’ until Giorgio Vasari published a biography of Leonardo 31 years after his death. ‘Mona Lisa’ literally translated from Italian (Madonna Lisa) into English means “Lady Lisa”. Lisa apparently was model Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo. The alternative title, “La Gioconda” is the feminine form of Giocondo.

Symbolist interpretations of the painting first became popular in the mid nineteenth century when art critics began to associate Mona Lisa with eternal femininity.

There are some major problems with Langdon’s theories on Amon and Isis. For one the name “Amon” is an English version of the Egyptian God’s name. Da Vinci was Italian. ‘Isis’ is the Greek version of the Egyptian name for the goddess, Aset.

The Mona Lisa can be viewed in The Louvre, in the Salle des Etats.

Websites for further research:

Mona Lisa at Wikipedia

www.monalisamania.com

The Paris Meridian is a meridian line running through Paris, once a rival to Greenwich as the prime meridian of the world. In 1666 Louis XIV authorised the building of an observatory to measure longitude, based on the calculations of longitude calculated earlier by French astronomer Abbé Jean Picard.

Frances Arago in the early 1800s recalculated the Paris Meridian with greater precision. He helped to standardize the length of the hour in France, based on the Paris Meridian.

In 1884 (not 1888 as in the Da Vinci Code) the Greenwich Meridian was adopted as the international standard at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC. France stuck to the Paris Meridian until the second decade of the twentieth century.

In 1994 Jan Dibbets was commissioned to set 135 bronze medalions into the ground along the Paris Meridian, as a tribute to the work of Frances Arago. Arago’s statue had been melted down during World War II.

There has been no shortage of conspiracy theories associated with the Paris Meridian.

Dan Brown, in the Da Vinci Code, calls the meridian the “Rose Line”, drawing connections with the Saint Sulpice church and the inverted pyramid of the Louvre. Brown overlooks the fact that there were several candidates for the prime meridian from early days. When Greenwich was adopted as the universal zero longitude it was in competition with Berlin, Cadiz, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, St Petersburg, Stockholm, Tokyo and of course Paris. The adoption of Greenwich was probably linked with the British domination of the sea at the time.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Paris has an excellent page dedicated to Jan Dibbet’s Arago tribute, including the location of all the medallions. It’s in French – use the Google translation tool if you’re not sure of your French.

18th District

• 18 avenue de la Porte de Montmartre,
  in front of the public library (1)
• corner of rue Rene Binet/
  avenue de la Porte de Montmartre (1)
• 45/47 avenue Junot (1)
• 15 rue S. Dereure(1)
• 3 and 10 avenue Junot (2)
• Mire du Nord, 1 avenue Junot,
  in private court, limited access (1)
• 79 rue Lepic (1)

9th district

• 21 boulevard de Clichy,
  side pavement and on the street (2)
• 5 rue Duperré (1)
• 69/71 rue Pigalle (2)
• 34 rue de Chateaudun,
  interior court of the ministry for national Education (2)
• 34 rue de Chateuadun (1)
• 18/16 and 9/11 Haussmann boulevard,
  in front of the restaurant (2)
• corner rue Taitbout, (in front of the brewery)
  and 24 boulevard des Italiens (2)

2nd District

• 16 rue de Septembre 4 (1)
• 15 rue saint Augustin

1st District

• 24 rue de Richelieu (1)
• 9 rue de Montpensier (1)
• Royal Palace: peristyles of Montpensier and Chartres, gallery of nemours, passage under vault side places Colette and Colette place in front of the coffee (7)
• angle places Colette and Council of State, street holy Honore (1)
• place royal Palate, side street of Rivoli (1)
• rue de Rivoli, with the entry of the passage under vault (1)
• The Louvre, Richelieu wing: room of the French sculptures and in front of escalator (3)
• The Louvre, Napoleon court, behind the pyramid (5)
• The Louvre, Denon wing: room of Roman antiquities, staircase and corridor (3)
• Quai du Louvre, close to the entry of the Daru embassy (1)
• port du Louvre, not far from Pont des Arts (1)

6th district

• port des Saints-Peres (1)
• Conti quay, one on corner of the place of the Institute (2)
• place de’instuit, passage rue de Seine (1)
• 3 and 12 rue de Seine (4)
• corner rue de Seine/rue des Beaux-Arts (1)
• 152 and 125-127 Saint-Germain boulevard (2)
• 28 rue de Vaugirard, Senate side (1)
• Jardin de Luxembourg, on asphalted or cemented spaces (10)
• rue Auguste Compte, garden entry (1)
• front of the Observatory on pavement side garden (2)
• front corner of the Observatory/street Michelet (1)
• Marco Polo garden (3)
• front corner of the Observatory/street of Assas (1)
• place Camille Jullian (2)
• on ground full front corner. Denfert Rochereau/front of the Observatory, side Observatory (1)front of the Observatory (2)

14th district

• court of the Observatory of Paris (2)
• inside the Observatory (1)
• terrace and high garden, in the enclosure protected from the Observatory (7)
• Arago boulevard/place of the Island of Centre (6)
• 81 rue du fauborg Saint Jacques (1)
• place Saint Jacques (1)
• Montsouris park (9)
• Jourdan boulevard (2)
• University city, along axis of Canadian embassy to the Cambodian embassy (10)