Hidden Clues in Works of Art

One of the most interesting developments in popular culture, heralded by books like the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (soon to be a motion picture) and the motion picture National Treasure is that art contains clues to unlocking great mysteries. I’ve not read the Da Vinci Code, the plot, I understand, concerns hidden clues that point to the identity of “The Holy Grail”. These clues are purported to be hidden in the works of artists and craftspeople throughout medieval and renaissance times. One example is the portrait of Saint John in the Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” Mr. Brown suggests that this is actually a portrait of Mary Magdalene, to understand why this is important to the plot you would need to read the book. An interesting art history class could be organized around discovering other works from medieval Europe where St. John was also painted to signify the feminine divine. With the motion picture in production, students would find motivation from the engine of popular culture with television and print ads to delve into this mystery by a review of the art of the film.
National Treasure is a fantasy that suggests that the treasure of the Knights of Templar was hidden beneath Wall Street in New York by the America’s founders and the map to this treasure is on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
I do not recommend either National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code, they are both simple escapist fare that misinform rather than inform. However, this idea of hidden messages in art going through a period of popularity in popular culture could provide an opportunity to look for real hidden messages in artwork. A recent article in the Italian magazine Stile reveals one such hidden message resulting from a year’s research by an art historian named Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz.
Raphael was a celebrity widely famous throughout Europe during the High Renaissance. He was a contemporary of other artists of equal fame including Da Vinci and Michelangelo. The painting that Mr. Curuz studied is La Fornarina,
The picture is a portrait of Ms. Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker believed by many to have been Raphael’s companion. The clues hidden by Raphael in the painting say that, in fact, Margherita Luti was Raphael’s wife.
Why would Raphael hide this marriage?
He was already engaged to another, the niece of a Roman Catholic Cardinal. A traditional marriage was free of sentiments such as love. The purpose of marriage in this time was for status and wealth. To marry Ms. Luti he would be marrying below his station, meaning a woman from a lower social class.
What were the clues hidden in the painting by Raphael?
Several clues were painted over by Raphael’s students when he died at the age of 38. These clues were just discovered during a cleaning of the painting. One was quite obvious, Raphael’s students painted over a ring on Ms. Luti wedding ring finger, but the students also painted over the background of the painting, a background of myrtle and quince, bushes that were, during the Renaissance, symbols of love and faithfulness and would have been immediately recognizable to a viewer as such.
Clues that were not covered up include the pearl on Margherita’s turban; the name Margherita means, “Pearl”. The second is the painted blue ribbon on her arm with the name “Raphael”.
Certainly a secret marriage is not as exciting as hidden treasure. However, Raphael is a well-known artist, a household name, and the clues are real and revealing. Such study can both be motivated by “hidden messages in art” as presented in popular culture as well as provide a counter balance to the more unrealistic aspects of the way popular culture presents this.

Read our June essay: The Mathematics of Art
Read our May essay: The Importance of School Art Competitions
Read our January essay : Art History and the Internet
Read our March essay: Ink Jet Printers and the Color Wheel:
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