|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
This page shows the da Vinci geometry as contained in Nicolas Poussin's second versions of Sacrament of Penance, Sacrament of Marriage and Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Below; Poussin's Sacrament of Penance, 1647. Mary Magdalene in the left putting perfume on Jesus' feet as described in John:12, 1-7. If you look closely you will see that the table edge is not perfectly horizontal in relation to the pillars. Therefore, we can't precisely align the bottom hexagon line to it as we did in The Last Supper, although it is extremely close to being perfectly aligned. The true reference for the position of that line is the top of the left handle of the jug in front of the kneeling man's forehead, which gives the line's position. The fact that the hexagon line is so close to the table edge tells us that Poussin was aware that this is how da Vinci had positioned the geometry in his painting but he may have wanted to be a little trickier. It could be a slight photo distortion but the precision of the rest of the alignments argues against this.
The geometry is not quite as clearly referenced in this painting as in most of the others but the alignment of the large double hexagram with the pillars, as with the other paintings on this page, indicates that the geometry was definitely designed in and there are sufficient secondary alignments to confirm the rest of the geometry also.
The following images are quite spectacular. These will leave no doubt whatsoever that the geometry was purposely designed into this painting. The first image couldn't be a clearer referencing of the double hex figure. It is perfectly aligned with the pillars and the lower hexagon lines are in the same place as the slanted bases of the two outer pillars. The sheet hung in the background is clearly tacked up right at two points of the double hex. It is as if the sheet is actually hooked onto the hex points. Note that although it appears that the bottom line of the rectangle surrounding the double hexagram might not be right at the edge of the couch, if you look closely at the lower left corner of the rectangle you will see that there is a dark line right at that point which appears to be where the upholstery is attached or tucked in. The lower rectangle line is perfectly aligned to that line.
The rest of the images have similarly clear alignments. So we have not one, but two Poussin paintings depicting the Last Supper which contain the full Da Vinci Star geometry, this one and the Institution of the Eucharist.
Copyright © Brian Ettinger 2005-2007 All Rights Reserved