reading

“The Lady Speaks compels the church to re-examine biblical texts and iconic religious works of art to derive refined truths which currently run counter to traditional patriarchal and androcentric interpretation.”

—Rev. Dr. Irie Session
Senior Pastor, Warren Avenue Christian Church

“After nearly five hundred years of speculation, the lady speaks. This is a brilliant, engaging, and well-documented presentation of the hidden truth within the Mona Lisa. The message of Theological Gender Equality is of profound importance to our generation and illuminates the original intent of Leonardo da Vinci.”

—Jennifer Mitchell, JD
Attorney-at-Law

“The Lady Speaks presents Leonardo da Vinci’s hidden message within the Mona Lisa, Theological Gender Equality to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The message broadens the understanding of men and women to the truth that the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is universal to all.”

—Brenda Gordon
Product Manager, Vice President of a large financial institution

“The Lady Speaks is a brilliant and intriguing investigation that reveals the true, hidden message within the Mona Lisa—a message of profound importance to our generation.”

—Ramiro de la Cruz
Territory Manager, IBM

“The Mona Lisa is both a masterpiece in art as well as a religious icon. Readers of The Lady Speaks will never be able to view the Mona Lisa in the same way.”

—Rev. Dr. Alpina Wines
Pastor, Dido United Methodist Church

“A most brilliant and insightful read! To think that both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were aware of the necessity for the Church to recognize Theological Gender Equality over five hundred years ago testifies to their divine genius, particularly in light of the danger from the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition.”

—James O. Duke, PhD
Professor, Brite Divinity School

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Artists and Visionaries

Chapter 1: Marching Toward the “New Jerusalem”

Chapter 2: Two “Last” Suppers

Chapter 3: Leonardo’s Little Princess from Ferrara

Part II: The Secret Message

Chapter 4: The Promise: The Manchester Madonna

Chapter 5: The Promise Fulfilled: Pietà of St. Peter’s

Chapter 6: The Promise Forgotten: The Entombment

Chapter 7: The “Hindered”: St. Matthew

Part III: The Sistine Speaks

Chapter 8: Martyred Between the Altar and the Temple: The Prophet Zechariah

Chapter 9: The Foundation Stone: The Flood

Chapter 10: The Five Sibyls: The Apostle’s Creed

Part IV: The Lady “Speaks”

Chapter 11: The Motivation for the Mona Lisa

Chapter 12: Inhabiting Her Place: Mona Lisa

Chapter 13: The Feast of the Tabernacles: The Balcony and the Burdensome Yoke

Chapter 14: A Smile and an Unfinished Finger

Chapter 15: The Woman from Canaan

Chapter 16: Theological Duality

Chapter 17: St. John the Baptist: Witness to the Mona Lisa

Chapter 18: Leonardo’s Last Anagram

Chapter 19: A Second Chance at Destiny

Part V: Leonardo’s Special Effects

Chapter 20: Beasts at the Gate of Jerusalem

Chapter 21: The Eyes of the Mona Lisa

Epilogue

Appendix: Lisa Gherardini: The Mona Vanna

Discussion Points

Works Cited and Further Reading

About the Author

PREFACE

The Mona Lisa has been the subject of many erroneous correlations and suppositions throughout its five-hundred-year history, due in large part to the speculation that some “hidden messages” might be contained within the portrait. Any productive discussion of the decoding and subsequent interpretation of the Mona Lisa can begin only at the time when “hard data” can be provided and verified to the general public.

The process of decoding and interpreting the Mona Lisa requires that three distinct types of “hard data” be presented to the general public: (1) the reference text used by Leonardo da Vinci to construct his arguments within the Mona Lisa, (2) the physical map used by Leonardo da Vinci to correlate geographic locations taken from his reference text and placed into the background of the Mona Lisa, (3) and the identification of the religious symbols Leonardo da Vinci used within the composition of the Mona Lisa in order to “teach” or communicate the lesson of his theme.

The reference text used to construct arguments within the Mona Lisa was chapter 14 of the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament. Leonardo desired to present the theme of Theological Gender Equality or Women’s Rights to Hold the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by artistically presenting the twenty-one verses of Holy Scripture that it contained.

To accomplish this task, Leonardo constructed and placed a total of forty separate symbols taken from chapter 14 into the background, middle ground, and foreground of the composition of the Mona Lisa.

The first ten can be correlated to the background of the Mona Lisa and have been identified and placed upon the “Map of the Old City of Jerusalem” (Figure 1).

Leonardo used the “Map of the Old City of Jerusalem” to assist him in painting the background of the portrait. This particular map was readily accessible to Leonardo as it was located within the vaults of the Vatican Library during the three years that Leonardo resided within the Belvedere of the Vatican from 1513 to 1516. These ten symbols reveal Leonardo’s message.

In addition to these first ten symbols within the background of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo placed an additional ten either on or near the portrait “sitter” of the Mona Lisa, in order to teach the message of Theological Gender Equality, as presented by Zechariah 14. This second set of ten symbols is presented and identified on the composition of the Mona Lisa in Figure 2.

There are a total of 1,189 chapters within the combined Latin Vulgate—the Old and New Testaments of the Bible—to which Leonardo da Vinci had access. The probability that all forty symbols within the Mona Lisa would exactly correlate to the fourteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah is 1 out of 47,560, which yields an accuracy of interpretation between the Mona Lisa and the book of Zechariah chapter 14 at the astonishing value of 99.99998%.

This extreme accuracy on the part of Leonardo may seem like overkill, but as Leonardo clearly states, “Now look here reader, at what our ancestors would have us believe. They have tried to define life and the soul as dealing with things which cannot be proven, when those things which at all times could clearly be proven by experience. These things have been unknown for so many centuries or else misunderstood, and I find by my experience that it is something quite different.”

The “something quite different” is the major theme presented within the Mona Lisa and is defined as humanity’s universal sanctification, brought about by the recognition of theological gender equality, or the rights of women to hold the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Leonardo realized that his message would be evident to the general public of some future generation, and would not require any additional validation by theologians, scholars, professors, or doctors of the Church as to its true meaning. It would be that particular generation that would be ready to integrate his “hidden” message into their ongoing pursuit of happiness.

In order to confirm these thoughts, Leonardo produced three major art pieces that witnessed to the theme of Theological Gender Equality: The Last Supper, completed in 1498; the Mona Lisa, completed in 1515; and St. John the Baptist, completed in 1516. Each of these masterpieces speaks in favor of recognizing women’s rights to hold the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

The strength of Leonardo’s arguments could be made stronger only if another renowned artist of Leonardo’s time was found to have produced art pieces on this same theme. Michelangelo Buonarroti also commented in favor of Theological Gender Equality within the compositions of The Manchester Madonna, completed in 1498; the Pietà of St. Peter’s, completed in 1499; The Entombment, completed in 1500; and St. Matthew, completed in 1504.

Unbelievably, Michelangelo placed his strongest arguments in support of Theological Gender Equality upon the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel within the compositions of the portrait of Zechariah and The Flood, both completed in 1508, as well as the five Greek and Roman Sibyls surrounding the central panels of the Sistine composition, completed between 1508 and 1512.

The next obvious question concerns when this entire “artistic collaboration” between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo on the subject of Theological Gender Equality started and what motivated it.

According to artistic records, Leonardo first produced an art piece on the theme of Theological Gender Equality in 1498 with the completion of The Last Supper, located on the refectory wall within the church and convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. That same year, Michelangelo also produced his first art piece on the theme of Theological Gender Equality, The Manchester Madonna.

Michelangelo and Leonardo shared one very special commonality: They were both originally from Florence. In May 1498, the “prophet of Florence,” Girolamo Savonarola, was hanged and his body burned as a heretic to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church by an edict of Pope Alexander VI. Savonarola had a strong and powerful influence upon the Florentines. He made five famous prophecies while he was alive. Four of these five prophecies came to fruition, but one was still left unfulfilled. This last “unfulfilled” prophecy by Savonarola became the impetus for both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to “teach” the concept of Theological Gender Equality through their art.

Savonarola’s unfulfilled prophecy stated that within Florence, all of the prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Zechariah would come to fruition and that Florence would become the heralded New Jerusalem. Leonardo and Michelangelo knew full well that Florence was not yet the New Jerusalem, so they both attempted to answer the question “Why not?”

Each artist was researching the Testaments to find the answer to what was keeping Florence from becoming the New Jerusalem. Separated from one another by a distance of more than three hundred miles, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo came to the same conclusion: “The heralded New Jerusalem of Christendom would not be established upon the earth until Theological Gender Equality was recognized by Christianity. Women, as well as men, have the same equal rights to hold the priesthood of Jesus Christ.”

After nearly five hundred years since the completion of the Mona Lisa in 1515, modern generations have the opportunity to recognize Theological Gender Equality. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo will speak and present their arguments and “teach” this most cherished of Christian concepts through their art.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In any academic achievement, the words of Sir Isaac Newton always apply: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

I would like to thank and acknowledge the following academic giants for their time and consideration in this project. From historical, investigative, and confirmation processes, the success of this investigation was predicated upon their past and present efforts.

Dr. James Hopfensperger, Dr. Estelle Lingo, and Dr. Stuart Lingo for their support and insightful comments that initiated the investigation.

Dr. Rona Goffen, Dr. Cecil Gould, Dr. Johannes Wilde, and Dr. Kenneth Clark for their past historical research, which framed the foundation of this project.

Any independent work of research requires publication. The rough draft of The Lady Speaks was completed in December 2011. At that time, Milli Brown, owner of Brown Books Publishing Group in Dallas, Texas, was approached with the prospect of publishing the text. Brown Books took on the project of publishing the text later that same month, for which I am eternally grateful.

No book is complete, however, without a strong developmental editor to make the words of the author readable. This task was accomplished by Dr. Janet Harris of Southern Methodist University and managing editor of Brown Books. The greatest words of commendation I can give in regard to Dr. Harris are “Thank you. You are a true professional.”

A professional work also requires a team of professionals who can “get the job done.” I would like to acknowledge and extend my gratitude to the following professionals for a job well done: Haley Doran, project manager; Omar Mediano, art director; Jessica Burnham, production manager; Auburn Layman, editorial coordinator; Cathy Williams, marketing director; Cindy Birne, public relations director; Kathy Penny, project coordinator; David Hess, author concierge; Lucia Retta, editorial assistant; and Danny Whitworth, interior designer.

Finally, to my family and friends, who all too often receive less than their fair share of praise and gratitude, I thank you. Without your continued support, the success of this twelve-year-long endeavor and odyssey would have been greatly compromised.

INTRODUCTION

A small group of gifted students at Texas A&M University and their search for meaning in the weeks following the events of the Texas A&M “Bonfire Tragedy” on November 18, 1999, led to the motivation for this project. This tragedy claimed the lives of twelve wonderful students. To my personal horror, seven of the twelve fallen students were under my tutelage at the time of the accident.

An attempt to find the injured was doggedly undertaken during the first response to this tragedy. Every effort was made to discover and transfer the maimed and seriously wounded to medevac, while the deceased were solemnly remitted to an area of distinct honor, prepared by the students. I witnessed the honorable actions of these fine young men and women as I participated in the rescue effort as a first responder to the tragedy. The camaraderie and strength of spirit manifested in the effort of lifting oak logs—whose weight was measured in tons and not pounds—proved that the angels in heaven were with us during those very early morning hours of November 18, 1999.

To this small group of students who were with me during those hours, I give thanks.

Our mutual attempt to find reason in chaos after this tragic event allowed the spiritual healing process to begin through our search for reason within the Testaments and understanding through art. We discussed the topic of the afterlife within the context of the Testaments, and our exploration led us to consider artistic sources as well, including Leonardo da Vinci’s St. John the Baptist and Michelangelo’s Pietà of St. Peter’s. After much spiritual healing, we became convinced that something sacred or hidden was buried within the art of these two great masters. We began to see that a collaboration in thought as well as a competition in talent had taken place between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

When I left Texas A&M University in 2000, I decided to pursue this intriguing corollary through research at Michigan State University in East Lansing and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on a full-time basis. This decision allowed time for further investigation and afforded me much-needed time away to find some closure and peace for my own soul.

I thank the librarians at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, for their tireless efforts with the procurement of rare and often difficult-to-acquire texts through the University Library Book Depository Services Program throughout 2001–2004. Through their combined service and dedication, the foundation of this twelve-year investigation was accomplished, leading to the publication of this text.

I extend heartfelt thanks to Dr. James Hopfensperger, chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Michigan State University, and his two postdoctoral associate professors—Dr. Estelle Lingo, PhD, Brown University, and Dr. Stuart Lingo, PhD, Harvard University—for their insights and comments in the spring of 2003 pertaining to a collaborative effort in theme between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

As with all long and difficult projects, there is always an individual whose mantra is carried by the researcher throughout the duration of the project. This special distinction and honor goes to Dr. James Hopfensperger, whose own intuition suspected that “something grand” existed within the art due to this apparent collaboration. His question toward the end of the spring semester 2003 was simply, “What is the theme of this collaboration and what does it mean?” He gave me the following words of wisdom: “Bill, hunt this thing down to its bitter end, wherever it goes and wherever it leads. Never give up and publish the results.”

I took the good doctor’s advice.

Through the past studies of Dr. Cecil Gould, PhD, at the University of London, Dr. Johannes Wilde, PhD, at the University of London Courtauld Institute, and Dr. Kenneth Clark, PhD, at Trinity College, Oxford, the necessary extensions were found in the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to hypothesize a common theme.

Not until the spring of 2004 did a potential answer come into sight. Dr. Rona Goffen, PhD, of Columbia University was researching the topic of women and women’s issues of the Renaissance as expressed in the artistic masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo as an extension of her latest book, Renaissance Rival, published in 2002. An attempt to coordinate the research effort on this question with Dr. Goffen was initiated in October 2004 but was met with great disappointment and heartache upon receiving the news that Dr. Goffen had passed away on September 8, 2004.

By adding the research accumulated by Dr. Goffen to previous data, I concluded that “theological gender equality” was the answer to the question of common theme. The artistic records and repertoires of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, when compared and contrasted, revealed when and where this collaboration in theme occurred—during the years 1498 to 1519 when their professional careers intersected.

After six years of study and work on Leonardo da Vinci’s great masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, I also correlated directly the theme of theological gender equality to the words of chapter 14 of the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament. This unique connection was found in August 2010, and since then, when looking upon the Mona Lisa with this new understanding, I have been and forever will be greatly humbled and awed at the genius in both art and theology that Leonardo da Vinci displays within the portrait.