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Da Vinci Code
Clues & Symbols
Da Vinci Code: Clues, Symbols & Meanings
Although
religious scholars sincerely doubt some of the research Dan Brown
employs in The Da Vinci Code, more than a few intriguing
questions remain at the heart of The
Da Vinci Code controversy.
The
novel tells the story of Harvard professor and symbologist Robert
Langdon who is called to the Louvre Museum in Paris to examine
cryptic symbols found in Leonardo da Vinci's artwork. In decrypting
these symbols, Langdon uncovers a plot by the church to suppress
the information and almost immediately becomes a hunted fugitive.
Eventually,
Langdon does comes up with answers to some of the most dangerous
questions posed in the novel. Was
Mary Magdalene the wife of Jesus Christ? Was she relegated to the
role of "fallen woman" by early Church fathers to conceal
her real identity? Did she give birth to a daugher, Sara, who was
later protected by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion?
And what role
exactly did Leonardo Da Vinci play in the Priory of Sion during
the Renaissance?
In masterful
storytelling, author Dan Brown leads his readers on a journey that
explains the "real" story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene,
and the final whereabouts of the Holy Grail, with intriguing clues
and symbols found in some of da Vinci's most famous paintings.

The Last Supper
At the heart
of Brown's novel is the story that da Vinci hid a major clue in
his masterpiece, The
Last Supper.
John the Apostle, or Mary Magdalene?
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On reexamining
the painting, it's discovered that sitting at Jesus' right hand
is Mary Magdalene, not as is commonly believed, the apostle John.
In addition,
the famous cup from which Christ drank, the Holy Grail, is conspicuously
left out of the painting.
Here is where
Brown cleverly weaves medieval legends with high Renaissance art
to suggest that the Holy
Grail - which became the subject of endless search by medieval
knights - was not a cup at all but Mary Magdalene herself, the human
receptacle for Jesus' blood line.
Mona Lisa
A symbol of the sacred feminine?
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Another clue
in the novel is seen in one of da Vinci's Mona
Lisa which Langdon states is an expression of the artist's
belief in the "sacred
feminine."
The conclusion
drawn is that Mona Lisa is not any particular person, but a cryptic
reference to the Egyptian gods Amon and Isis. "Mona" is
an anagram of Amon and "Lisa" a contraction of l'Isa,
meaning Isis.
In the novel,
Professor Langdon discovers that da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa
in opposition to the Church's suppression of Mary Magdalene's true
identity.
Vitruvian Man
Vitruvian Man
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Leonardo da
Vinci's most famous drawings is based upon the work of ancient Roman
architect Vitruvius
who was a proponent of using human proportion in building.
In the novel's
opening scene, Sauniere's body is found in the Louvre naked and
posed like the Vitruvian
Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body. It is the
first clue that Professor Langdon receives that prods him to delve
more deeply into other works of da Vinci that helps solve the mystery.

The
Fibonacci sequence
describes a natural growth
pattern common to all life,
as seen in the structure
of a nautilus shell.
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Fibonacci Sequence
Another symbol
of proportion, unrelated to Leonardo da Vinci, is the novel's use
of the ancient number sequence created by 13th-century mathematician
Fibonacci.
He suggested
a sequence in which all life grows in a common progression, with
each number equaling the sum of the two preceding ones.
1
- 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21
Dan Brown features
the Fibonacci
sequence as one of the many clues left behind by Jacques Sauniere,
the Louvre curator. The puzzle is instantly recognized and unscrambled
by his cryptologist granddaughter.
It's only later
discovered that Sauniere's deposit box account number at the Zurich
bank is the Fibonacci sequence numbers, arranged in the correct
order.
also
see -> Da
Vinci Code Movie
More about the Da Vinci Code around the Web:
Da
Vinci's Code : Mary Magdalene & The Sacred Feminine
The
Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
Leonard Da Vinci - The Last Supper (zoomable verson)
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