Tag Archives: Leonardo da Vinci

History mystery

A joke from my youth: “Did you hear what happened when they removed all of Tammy Faye Bakker’s makeup? They found Jimmy Hoffa.” I was reminded of this after the announcement by French scientist Pascal Cotte that there is a painting of a different woman underneath the surface of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. “We can now analyze exactly […]

The Mystical Nativity

This week I got a note from a reader about the image of the Nativity: “The Gospels give us Joseph receiving messages from God in dreams. A sleeping Joseph is therefore a Joseph disposed to prayer. I’m guessing that’s why he is so often depicted as sleeping.” He’s right. If Joseph isn’t sleeping by the […]