Well there has been another program on the Shroud which looks into the possibility that Leonardo created the shroud, and that it may in fact be a self image.
Ooooooh noooooooooo. I know exactly how this idiocy started. About five years ago a woman--a producer for national TV here in Italy--wrote to Augusto Marinoni (then president of Raccolta Vinciana) explaining her "theory". She had some really GREAT "evidence": like, the shroud may originally have come from France, and Leo died in France. Marinoni, a hilariously funny old geezer, made the mistake of replying to her letter, saying, more or less, that this was utter nonsense. Since she was, and is, a typical Leo Looney, she sent back a 25-page screed outlining her ideas.
We fell about laughing when M told us the story (unfortunately he'd trashed the second letter; I think these things should be preserved). As it happened, though, she eventually managed to convince God knows who; her book was solemnly published last year. We're still laughing.
And then there are the nutcases who believe that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of Leonardo in drag. This "idea" resurfaces every thirty years or so. More often lately: the computer imaging people are really into it. They haven't got a clue: simply don't understand that the proportions of Mona's face are the same as those of Leo's own in the Turin self-portrait (drawing; probably really is a self-portrait, but we don't know for sure) because Leo was interested in the theory of human proportion.
I could go on. And on. The Louvre has a correspondence file for each of their Leonardos, and these files are a SCREAM. I spent days reading 'em about eight years ago. Like a few other artists, poor Leo attracts lunatics. |
