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Chapter 13
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Two Become One
This chapter goes over how and why the Mona Lisa and his self portrait match up.. The implications and other possibilities.
Each time I thought I had answered the question, I found a new one. They all seemed to be leading to the same thing but in different ways. What is the right question? What is the one that really needed to be asked? It’s not who the Mona Lisa is but why she was painted in the first place. What is her purpose? That is the question that all the other ones led to and what this book tries to answer.
Da Vinci said the greatest paintings are those that most closely imitate what they’re supposed to represent. It’s been demonstrated that Da Vinci’s only known self portrait matches up with the face of “Mona Lisa.” This has led to various theories including that the Mona Lisa is really Da Vinci in “drag.” Or that Da Vinci used similar faces in his art – a template so to speak. Interestingly his self portrait isn’t a painting but a sketch done in red chalk. (shown on last the last page)
If they are only similar because he used similar faces in his art. Then why does it match up in the way it does? I mean; if the only reason they match up is because of his particular style, then why does the face on a small sheet of paper coincidentally match up with a painting that’s much larger? Imagine drawing your own face on a piece of paper and then having it, when enlarged, and without any change of proportion match up perfectly with the Mona Lisa? Would that be a coincidence? Or would you have had to design them to align? You don’t have to stretch, manipulate the images to get them to align. Only re-size them!
What’s most fascinating about the similarities isn’t that the sketch and the painting are similar - it’s that they align when placed OVER each other. Think about that. It’s not that they look like they could be the same person, or that Da Vinci based the Mona Lisa off of his own face - but that the drawing fits over, and matches up with the painting PERFECTLY! It’s as if it were intentional… which it is. Everyone argues about if it really matches up but forget to take it to the next step and ask – why? Obviously it does so there isn’t any use arguing it doesn’t, but then we gotta ask ourselves – why?
Most people consider it to be a coincidence - A side effect from both images being by the same artists. That’s what most art experts and historians would tell you. But, consider for a second who that artist is. Don’t try to explain why it’s a coincidence or why there isn’t any meaning behind it but consider WHY he would have designed them to match up??? Because they definitely do..
That’s the question that most people don’t consider as carefully as they should. The first theory to explain it would be that it’s him as a woman. His face matches up with the Woman in the painting so it must be him, dressed as a woman - right? I actually started this book trying to explain that the Mona Lisa was him AS a woman, not dressed as a woman. What he would have looked liked had he been born as a woman. He’s the master of anatomy and could have and would have been able to imagine that. That was where this journey started, but with a unique twist..
I am not the first person to notice that the faces matched up. The first woman who did showed the progression from Da Vinci’s self portrait to the Mona Lisa. They were obviously connected. But that was as far as the connection went.
Then comes along little ol’ me. All I wanted to do was see if they really matched up for myself- which I confirmed. But I found something even more unexpected. Not only did they match up perfectly, they combined!
What do I mean “combined”? You’ll read from my interjections how strange the whole experience was. Even months after discovering what I did, I still have no idea how I originally envisioned it or did it?
I’m pretty good with computers and taught myself how to use Adobe Photoshop BUT I don’t understand the dynamics behind it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that although I’m good at editing pictures; I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t know what “levels” “thresholds” or the complexities that the program uses really are. It’s like I know what they do to a picture, but I don’t know WHY or HOW they work. It’s like knowing how to drive a car; I can put it in drive and know it moves the car forward but couldn’t explain exactly how it does - the mechanics.
I’ll explain what I mean by the two images “combining” in future chapters but for now just realize that they were definitely designed to be compared to one another. What happens once they did would require a knowledge I didn’t know I possessed.
I started by scanning the Mona Lisa into my computer and then trying to superimpose Da Vinci’s self portrait on her – to see if they really matched up for myself.. Guess what!? They did, they do- but there’s more. They didn’t just match up they actually combined.
At first glace they don’t really look like they would match up. But after a little re-sizing they definitely do!
They align perfectly but once combined I found that the composite image did some pretty strange things. Now.. you could say it’s coincidence and that it’s not done on purpose BUT before doubting we need to first consider something..
WHY did Da Vinci intend for these images to match up? They wouldn’t just conveniently align perfectly unless they were designed to do so. So when the composite image does what I’m about to show you, it actually explains why they align!
If they aren’t designed to go together then why does this happen? It has something to do with the colors used and how they combine. The image above is the same picture with only the hue changed. Notice how it appears to change from male to female and age. Now, is this just a weird side effect of the colors mixing or could Leonardo Da Vinci really have intended for the two images to combine and change each other? If there’s anyone in the entire world who could have conceived and executed something like this it would have been Da Vinci. Again: "Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past. Prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass, though but slowly."
Da Vinci was obviously aware of what the future could bring so it’s very possible he anticipated that someone could eventually develop a way to process his art. But here’s the thing.. How could he do this without a computer? Without a printer? Without anything other than paint, brush, canvas, and his mind? How do you think he did?
Or maybe the other question you might ask yourself is why he painted with such detail, with spots of paint literally smaller than a human hair? Can you believe that? Most people can barely draw proper stick people and this ancient man sat around putting down layer after layer of paint that’s invisible to the human eye! The How aside, WHY? Why spend 10 years, countless hours, and so much effort on a single painting? Why design your own self portrait to match up with the face of a woman?
Now you might ask yourself something else. Besides the visible top coat; Why would he paint more paintings underneath, only to cover them up again, and again? Or even more intriguing would he go through the trouble of painting them and then intend for them to not be seen? I would think those other paintings are designed to be seen and should be able to be separated from each other. That might seem like a crazy thing to do, to take apart the world’s greatest work of art, but what if there are 3 more right underneath? Pretty interesting if you ask me!
Getting back to the top coat of paint that we can actually see, why would he use transparent layers of oil? What purpose could they serve?
“Therefore make the hair on the head play in the wind around youthful faces and gracefully adorn thy many cascades of curls.” - Da Vinci
We can theorize all we want but instead of guessing lets try to apply what we can see.
When I combined the images of Da Vinci and The Mona Lisa they didn’t just fit together (which as been known) they combine on different levels to allow for more images to be created. In other words Da Vinci’s portrait is like a mask that’s supposed to be worn by Mona Lisa.
Consider it like this; I paint a picture of a girl and then I draw a picture of myself. When I put those images over each other not only do they match up spot on, but when you change the settings of the combined painting, it ages and changes.. Is that something that’s likely to happen as a coincidence? Noooo, especially not when you know Da Vinci created it. Literally, when you combine the two images and then shift the color the combined image will turn from girl to boy and get older! This being said the real question arises, how the hell did he do that??
You should also notice that the circle in Da Vinci’s self portrait matches up where Mona’s heart would be. (The exact center of the painting)
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