tagged w/ Leonardo da Vinci
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PARIS (Reuters) – A curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris has stumbled upon some unknown drawings on the back of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci that look like they might be by the Italian master himself, the Louvre said on Thursday.
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Do you think these drawings could be real? Does this change history in any way?PARIS (Reuters) – A curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris has stumbled upon some... more
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A new digital library launched by the European Union has crashed within hours of opening - forcing its closure.
The Europeana website was attracting more than 10 million hits an hour - more than double the number which had been anticipated.
The site includes paintings, photos, films, books, maps and manuscripts from 1,000 museums, national libraries and archives across Europe.
It is expected to reopen in December after technological improvements.
Users clicking on Europeana.eu currently find a message saying the site is "temporarily not accessible due to overwhelming interest after its launch".
"Thousands of users were searching for the words 'Mona Lisa' at the same time", explained a spokesman for the European Commission.
"It confirms it's worth doing, European culture is more popular than we had anticipated in our wildest dreams," he said.
After a massive surge just before Europeana's launch, the system's creators doubled the number of servers from three to six and got it working again for a short time.
However they will now perform more tests to ensure the digital library can stay open at peak times.A new digital library launched by the European Union has crashed within hours of... more
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Killer claiming to be the "Anti Christ" left messages involving the Apocalypse, Satan and robots
A Rome priest is fighting for his life after being stabbed in the neck and stomach by a deranged man who had just watched The Da Vinci Code on television.
Eyewitnesses said that Marco Luzi, 25, asked to see Father Canio Canistri, 68, parish priest at the church of Santa Marcella in the San Saba district on the Aventine Hill, and then attacked him with a knife hidden in a cloth. An elderly parishioner who came to the priest's aid is also in serious condition.
A Peruvian childminder and a policeman were also injured as the assailant fled through a nearby park. Police said Luzi, a former medical student with a history of psychiatric problems, had admitted watching the film version of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code on television the night before the frenzied assault.
At his flat nearby, where he lived with his mother Paola, investigators found material on the Apocalypse and the Anti Christ, and the telephone number of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. There was also a large reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", which is at the heart of the mystery in the Da Vinci Code, with a note pointing to one of the disciples reading "This is the hand in which a knife is hidden".
Police also found a box on which was written "In here are the keys to the Sixth and Seventh Seals, closed by order of Satan and Jesus Christ. Give all these things to the Pope." A rambling note read: "Between my death and my return many grave events will take place, years will pass, perhaps centuries. Christianity will be reviewed in the light of the new alliance between Jesus and the Madonna". Other notes referred to Islam, Satanism and robots.
Luzi told police "I am the Anti Christ", and said he had heard voices telling him to attack the priest, adding "I have carried out my mission". In his pockets investigators found a rosary and a note reading "This is just the beginning: 666", the mystical number said to refer to Satan..
Neighbours said Luzi was "a loner, a solitary introvert who sometimes quarrelled violently with his mother". Doctors said Father Canistri was in intensive care, while the pensioner who went to his aid at the church, Antonio Farrace, 78, a retired policeman, was also "in serious condition".
The Peruvian nanny, Rosemary Sotero Rivera, 37, was attacked by Luzi as he ran through a park after fleeing from the church. Witnesses said she threw herself on the three year old girl in her charge to protect her, and was stabbed in the shoulder.
Luzi was then chased by two policemen on motorcycles who dismounted and tackled him. "We couldn't fire our weapons, there were too many bystanders" said Luca Gori, 41, one of the police officers, who was lightly wounded in the stomach during the struggle with Luzi, who was covered in blood and still armed.
Parshioners on the Aventine Hill said Father Canistri, like many other parish priests, had repeatedly expressed concern over breaks ins and thefts at the church, and had asked his congregaion to be "vigilant". Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, congratulated the police for capturing the attacker, and said the assault "once again shows that mental disorders amount to a social emergency".
Killer claiming to be the "Anti Christ" left messages involving the... more
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Some may call it fuzzy math, but a Nebraska researcher has come up with a scientific way to use geometry to gauge how good looking you really are.
University of Nebraska Medical Center scientist, Dr. Kendra Schmid has developed a computer program for determining facial attractiveness. She uses a computer model composed of guidelines proposed by Leonardo da Vinci in the Renaissance era for drawing beautiful pictures. "The geometry of the face plays a surprising important role in attractiveness."
There is a science to it. Dr. Schmid calculates the attractiveness score by measuring 29 landmarks on your face. She says, "They are around the main features, the eyes and nose and mouth and also some on top and bottom of the face and the sides. We're just locating the important features on the face and using those to get measurements."
In the mathematics measurements, Barack Obama edges out John McCain with an attractivenss score of a seven compared to 6.5
According to the science, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is an eight and Senator Joe Biden a seven. Will the prettiness predict the next president?
The researcher checked the last four elections.... In three of the four... The most attractive candidate won the election.
To give you some perspective, Actor Brad Pitt got the highest attractiveness score of 9.3.
Some may call it fuzzy math, but a Nebraska researcher has come up with a scientific... more
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Born 500 years too early to put her photo on an online dating site, this young woman tried a different matchmaking approach — a portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Experts say a little-known portrait of a young woman, previously attributed to an anonymous German artist, is likely a drawing made by Leonardo. The 13-by-9.4-inch parchment is believed to be a nuptial portrait aimed at attracting a possible groom for the unidentified woman.
The drawing, which could be worth millions if the new attribution is confirmed, was bought in 1998 for $21,850 by a private collector at an auction in New York, said Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of a museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown of Vinci.
''Every element points to Leonardo,'' said Vezzosi, one of the experts who examined the drawing. ''This work looks extraordinary.''
Facing left, the woman wears Renaissance garments and the shoulder of her dress is marked by ''Vinci knots,'' a traditional decoration that points to the artist born in the small Tuscan town, Vezzosi said.
Vezzosi said it may also be the first work on parchment attributed to the Renaissance master.
Experts say the technique and style of the portrait indicate it was drawn by a gifted, left-handed artist, just like Leonardo.
''The left hand trait is really impressive for how fluid, secure and precise it is,'' Vezzosi said.
Vezzosi said several experts have backed the attribution over the last few months. The discovery is based on the analysis of the drawing by a Paris-based lab that already studied another Leonardo masterpiece, the ''Lady With an Ermine,'' which was attributed to the artist only in the early 19th century.
Based on its style the portrait has been dated to 1485-1490, placing it at a time when Leonardo (1452-1519) was living in Milan.
However, Vezzosi cautioned that further tests, including carbon-dating, must be carried out.
Carlo Pedretti, director of a center for Leonardo studies at the University of California in Los Angeles, also believes the work is likely Leonardo's.
''Despite all the perplexity that it may cause, also regarding the lack of information on its provenance, the work is at least for now the most important find since the identification of the Lady With an Ermine,'' he said.
Nicholas Turner, former curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Museum, was among the first experts to be alerted to the portrait and associate it with the Renaissance artist.
The work is of ''extremely fine execution,'' Turner told The Associated Press. ''There were only very few artists of that caliber then.''
Vezzosi did not identify the drawing's owner and said he was not aware of any plans to sell or display it.
He said there could be more works by Leonardo waiting to be discovered.
''There are collectors who keep these works of art in bank vaults, but it is likely that we'll find others,'' he said. ''We know of artworks that have been documented and that we haven't found yet.'' Born 500 years too early to put her photo on an online dating site, this young woman... more
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Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines were undoubtedly derived from Chinese originals, a British amateur historian claims in a newly-published book.
Gavin Menzies sparked headlines in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus.
Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology undiscovered by the West to Italy in 1434, laying the foundation for the engineering marvels such as flying machines later drawn by Italian mastermind Leonardo da Vinci.
"Everything known to the Chinese by the year 1430 was brought to Venice," said Menzies, when a Chinese ambassador went to Florence and presented the material to Pope Eugenius IV.
"I argue in the book that this was the spark that really ignited the renaissance and that Leonardo and (Italian astronomer) Galileo built on what was brought to them by the Chinese. "Leonardo basically redrew everything in three dimensions, which made a vast improvement."
If accepted, the claim would force an "agonizing reappraisal of the Eurocentric view of history", Menzies says.Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines were undoubtedly derived from Chinese... more
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You've seen da Vinci's version. Take a look at all of these other versions. Fantastic!You've seen da Vinci's version. Take a look at all of these other versions.... more
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In the art world, there is perhaps no mystery more enduring than the fate of a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest mind of the Renaissance. It was an immense unfinished mural known as "The Battle of Anghiari." For centuries, it has been assumed the work was destroyed, painted over or simply faded away long ago.
Now, after three decades of battling skepticism and bureaucratic resistance, an art detective named Maurizio Seracini believes he's close to solving the Leonardo mystery by suggesting the mural hasn't been lost at all, but is right where it’s always been - for 500 hundred years. In the art world, there is perhaps no mystery more enduring than the fate of a lost... more
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Strange images are revealed by applying mirrors to Da Vinci's works. Some scholars suggest the images reveal biblical figures while others, brilliantly, reckon the mysterious hidden figure in one of his paintings could be Darth Vader.
Yep, Darth Vader.
Interestingly, Da Vinci invented his own style of backwards writing that needed a mirror to be read, so there could be a grain of truth in this.
Strange images are revealed by applying mirrors to Da Vinci's works. Some... more
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richjm
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4 years ago
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German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait.
Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting.
But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself.
Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the... more
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German experts have identified 'Mona Lisa'
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bierse
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4 years ago
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An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper," raising the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.
Way cool...Can't wait to hear it....An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes... more
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Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper?" As of Saturday, all you need is an Internet connection. Officials put online an image of the "Last Supper" at 16 billion pixels - 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera.
Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last... more
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Even those who get to Milan have a hard time gaining admission to see "The Last Supper."
Twenty-five visitors are admitted every 15 minutes to see the painting for a total of about 320,000 visitors a year.
So officials put online an image of "The Last Supper" at 16 billion pixels - 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera. It allows viewers to look at details as though they were inches from the artwork in contrast to regular photographs, which become grainy as you zoom in.
Way cool!Even those who get to Milan have a hard time gaining admission to see "The Last... more
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