Posted on 06/25/2026 10:04:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
For more than 500 years, historians have debated the mysteries hidden within this famous Renaissance painting. A remarkable glass rhombicuboctahedron, an unidentified young man, and a strange inscription have led some researchers to question whether Leonardo da Vinci may have played a role in its creation.
One of Leonardo da Vinci's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries | 8:34
Secessio | 11.9K subscribers | 79,939 views | June 12, 2026
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Detail
2:05 Luca Pacioli & Leonardo da Vinci
3:20 The Rhombicuboctahedron
4:30 The Unknown Man
5:30 The Greatest Mystery : A Signature
6:30 Fly : A Coded Message
LOOK at the drapery of that folded gray smock!
Look again, at the fullness and vigor of those hands.
All this over a warm and expansive void of blackness.
Breathtakingly good and marvelous to see.
If I could EVER paint a garment as well as that one gray smock, I’d be the happiest wannabe-illustrator in the Night Class!
**I haven’t even gotten to the “Unsolved Mysteries”.
I leave that part to the real men and women of Science.
Seems more like a skillful homage to Leonardo, but could be partly overpainted. Should be xrayed to check out that possibility. OTOH maybe it already has been.
The only painting of his in the Americas is Ginevra de’ Benci. The National Gallery displays it so that both sides are visible. Leonardo painted some text and vines and such on the back.
Fourteen Century ‘Mystery Science Theater’
.
.
Let’s give Them Something to Talk about!
Leonardo painted the pic to piss off Michelangelo..........................
Talk about carrying coals to Newcastle. 😁
They did not get along with each other, for whatever reason.
They definitely knew each other.
Professional jealousy or maybe more than that, personal..............
In the book “Fortune Is a River”, a scene is described wherein Leonardo and Machiavelli are in some palatial room discussing the canal plan.
And Michelangelo walks in and waits for them to finish.
It is believed that both were homosexuals.
That would explain much....................
Their gates may have swung both ways, but they are unlikely to have found that much time for makin’ whoop’, what with the art and all.
Michelangelo, A&E Biography, “Rivalry with Leonardo”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnK9pwjg-9A&t=1112
“Vinci” was NOT Leonardo’s surname. Italian children who were “illegittimo” did not inherit the father’s surname. Like that other Michelangelo, Michelangelo da Caravaggio, Leonardo’s commonly used last name was the name of a place (the “da” in the name — Itey for “from” — is a clue). “Vinci” is the village within the city of Florenece where Leonardo’s mother lived.
“...a hidden order beneath the visible world....”
And how right they were. One of the definining characteristics of metals is that they all have a microscopic crystalline structure. For centuries people would examine a piece of metal that had failed structurally, see the sparkly bits and assume the metal had failed because it had “crystallized.” In fact, what had happened was the metal failed along crystalline boundaries, which made the structure visible to the naked eye when it broke.
Thx PG.
Da Vinci might have been but I don't think there's any reliable and authoritative surviving evidence of him having any sexual dalliances of any sort. The biggest clue, to me, is that the modern homosexual movement doesn't offer any 'scholarly' evidence that he was one of them. I think that if he were, he also was entirely celebate.
As much as anything, I think the conflict between da Vinci and Buonarroti was their personalities were polar opposites. Da Vinci was charming, urbane, and a snappy dresser. Michelangelo was grumpy, stank, wore clothes until they rotted off him, and resented anything that took time away from his work (including eating, bathing and recruiting patrons).
There's not much middle ground there.
Michelangelo may have been clinically insane..........
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