Vermeer's Riddle Revealed: The Sphinx, the Jester, and the Grail Geometry: Robert A. diCurcio's Analysis of Vermeer's Pictorial Compositions

Rating:
Summary: A NEW DISCOVERY IN VERMEER'S PAINTINGS
Review: "VERMEER'S RIDDLE REVEALED The SPHINX, The JESTER and The GRAIL GEOMETRY" by Robert A. diCurcio

There is a lot to swallow in that title and too much to chew at one sitting, but if one wants to learn about a new discovery concerning this Dutch Master's paintings it is worth the effort.

The author's objective is to prove that Vermeer used Grail Geometry that is hidden in some of his paintings. Like Vermeer's paintings that can be viewed at different levels, this author provides an analysis that delves beneath the paint itself. He painstakingly constructs geometric shapes from positions of objects in the paintings and reveals the artist's intention to hide what is known as the Grail Geometry that leads to a secret map. It is a map known by few that allegedly leads to a sacred burial location, Mt. Cardou, France. It is the author's belief that the artist's Grail Geometry was applied before he began painting and he proves it.

Interwoven with his proof is a discussion of who Vermeer was, what is known of his paintings and why he would use the Grail Geometry. Vermeer was known as "The Sphinx of Delft," i.e. the riddle of Delft, hence, the author's title to this work. In conjunction with his explanation of Grail Geometry, the author adds a riddle of his own and solves it in an attempt to break the tedium of labels and lines. The proof is there if one has an open mind to scientific discovery and will concentrate on finding it. In recent private correspondence, the author has provided reproductions of "The Astronomer" and the "Geographer" that are more clear and simplified to clean up some of the cluttered graphics.

For this reader, uncovering the Grail Geometry in Vermeer's paintings is enough and considered to be an important discovery in the study of art. The author goes further, however, with his discussion and examples of Vermeer as a jester who incorporated supernumeries, hidden faces and beasties in his paintings. Although these visions may be found, they are vague to begin with and made more so by reproduction, some requiring a leap of faith so that they detract from holding the reader's interest in the Grail Geometry. Just when the reader is convinced that the author has met his objective, one is faced with another question, "Now what?" Perhaps the Jester should remain so, but part of an additional publication.

The author includes a bibliography, parts of which the reader should be familiar with, if one is to comprehend the background that led to R. A. diCurcio's discovery.

Rating:
Summary: A NEW DISCOVERY IN VERMEER'S PAINTINGS
Review: "VERMEER'S RIDDLE REVEALED The SPHINX, The JESTER and The GRAIL GEOMETRY" by Robert A. diCurcio

There is a lot to swallow in that title and too much to chew at one sitting, but if one wants to learn about a new discovery concerning this Dutch Master's paintings it is worth the effort.

The author's objective is to prove that Vermeer used Grail Geometry that is hidden in some of his paintings. Like Vermeer's paintings that can be viewed at different levels, this author provides an analysis that delves beneath the paint itself. He painstakingly constructs geometric shapes from positions of objects in the paintings and reveals the artist's intention to hide what is known as the Grail Geometry that leads to a secret map. It is a map known by few that allegedly leads to a sacred burial location, Mt. Cardou, France. It is the author's belief that the artist's Grail Geometry was applied before he began painting and he proves it.

Interwoven with his proof is a discussion of who Vermeer was, what is known of his paintings and why he would use the Grail Geometry. Vermeer was known as "The Sphinx of Delft," i.e. the riddle of Delft, hence, the author's title to this work. In conjunction with his explanation of Grail Geometry, the author adds a riddle of his own and solves it in an attempt to break the tedium of labels and lines. The proof is there if one has an open mind to scientific discovery and will concentrate on finding it. In recent private correspondence, the author has provided reproductions of "The Astronomer" and the "Geographer" that are more clear and simplified to clean up some of the cluttered graphics.

For this reader, uncovering the Grail Geometry in Vermeer's paintings is enough and considered to be an important discovery in the study of art. The author goes further, however, with his discussion and examples of Vermeer as a jester who incorporated supernumeries, hidden faces and beasties in his paintings. Although these visions may be found, they are vague to begin with and made more so by reproduction, some requiring a leap of faith so that they detract from holding the reader's interest in the Grail Geometry. Just when the reader is convinced that the author has met his objective, one is faced with another question, "Now what?" Perhaps the Jester should remain so, but part of an additional publication.

The author includes a bibliography, parts of which the reader should be familiar with, if one is to comprehend the background that led to R. A. diCurcio's discovery.

Rating:
Summary: The gateway to another wonder
Review: The first mistake that the reader might make would be to judge this book by its cover. A spiral-bound book is often considered the work of a stubborn amateur who decided to self-publish the result of his discoveries after being rejected by every possible publisher. This hypothesis is soon rejected after checking Amazon's extensive data concerning the author. We find that he wrote other spiral-bound books, among which, one is about his own Nantucket - nothing less than a book about Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". Of the four books currently listed in amazon.com's online catalog, three of diCurcio's books are spiral bound, while the fourth is a hardcover edition containing almost 100 superb color reproductions of historic paintings. After reading "Vermeer's Riddle Revealed", the purchaser will understand why this book was produced in two spiral-bound volumes: to open both wide and to lay both flat -- so that the text volume and the full-page illustrations volume can easily be compared.

His starting point is something we take too many times for granted. We do not see everything around us. This untouchable truth is, alas, most of the time fully ignored. Our eyes cannot discern every chromatic line of colours (sometimes they can't see some at all), just as our ears cannot hear every possible sound outside the 20 to 20,000 Hz. range. What lies before us is not always perceived.

The "unperceived" is Robert diCurcio's starting point. In his analysis of Vermeer's paintings, his approach seems heretical - he removes all the colours from the paintings he examines. He reproduces them in black-and-white, like those dark illustrations we would prefer to see in colour in art books. But this is exactly the procedure that serves his agenda. The author maintains that Vermeer's paintings conceal a hidden occult geometry - a coordinated pattern of points, lines, and angles. The reader soon realizes that by removing colour to enhance the tonal values used by the artist, the author is able to see - and enables the reader to see -- patterns hitherto camouflaged for centuries. His analysis, demonstrating a geometrical basis for Vermeer's compositions (and some other very remarkable discoveries), appears to be undeniable.

This reviewer has no sympathy for those who might reject these findings by saying that you can see anything you want to see. The patterns are solidly confirmed by careful numbering of features that Vermeer placed at the nodal points of the same pattern that emerges in eight of Vermeer's paintings - in at least eight paintings out of the entire total of only 35 paintings in a lifetime's oeuvre. It is truly remarkable that modern technology - photography, the computer, and the laser printer - has enabled us to dig down below the camouflage of color to see the geometrical tonal patterns that Vermeer painted as underlayment for his masterpieces. One wonders if the Dutch master painter might ever have dreamed that one day the secret patterns, faces, and figures he lightheartedly concealed in the folds of drapery and carpeting would see the light of day some three hundred years in the future.

DiCurcio's work takes the reader into the world of Dutch master painting via the magic carpet of geometry - a field in which he spent many years as a teacher and as an engineer. After reading this extremely interesting book, a quote from Bob Dylan came to my mind: "There's no exit in any direction `cept the one that you can't see with your eyes."

Rating:
Summary: The gateway to another wonder
Review: The first mistake that the reader might make would be to judge this book by its cover. A spiral-bound book is often considered the work of a stubborn amateur who decided to self-publish the result of his discoveries after being rejected by every possible publisher. This hypothesis is soon rejected after checking Amazon's extensive data concerning the author. We find that he wrote other spiral-bound books, among which, one is about his own Nantucket - nothing less than a book about Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". Of the four books currently listed in amazon.com's online catalog, three of diCurcio's books are spiral bound, while the fourth is a hardcover edition containing almost 100 superb color reproductions of historic paintings. After reading "Vermeer's Riddle Revealed", the purchaser will understand why this book was produced in two spiral-bound volumes: to open both wide and to lay both flat -- so that the text volume and the full-page illustrations volume can easily be compared.

His starting point is something we take too many times for granted. We do not see everything around us. This untouchable truth is, alas, most of the time fully ignored. Our eyes cannot discern every chromatic line of colours (sometimes they can't see some at all), just as our ears cannot hear every possible sound outside the 20 to 20,000 Hz. range. What lies before us is not always perceived.

The "unperceived" is Robert diCurcio's starting point. In his analysis of Vermeer's paintings, his approach seems heretical - he removes all the colours from the paintings he examines. He reproduces them in black-and-white, like those dark illustrations we would prefer to see in colour in art books. But this is exactly the procedure that serves his agenda. The author maintains that Vermeer's paintings conceal a hidden occult geometry - a coordinated pattern of points, lines, and angles. The reader soon realizes that by removing colour to enhance the tonal values used by the artist, the author is able to see - and enables the reader to see -- patterns hitherto camouflaged for centuries. His analysis, demonstrating a geometrical basis for Vermeer's compositions (and some other very remarkable discoveries), appears to be undeniable.

This reviewer has no sympathy for those who might reject these findings by saying that you can see anything you want to see. The patterns are solidly confirmed by careful numbering of features that Vermeer placed at the nodal points of the same pattern that emerges in eight of Vermeer's paintings - in at least eight paintings out of the entire total of only 35 paintings in a lifetime's oeuvre. It is truly remarkable that modern technology - photography, the computer, and the laser printer - has enabled us to dig down below the camouflage of color to see the geometrical tonal patterns that Vermeer painted as underlayment for his masterpieces. One wonders if the Dutch master painter might ever have dreamed that one day the secret patterns, faces, and figures he lightheartedly concealed in the folds of drapery and carpeting would see the light of day some three hundred years in the future.

DiCurcio's work takes the reader into the world of Dutch master painting via the magic carpet of geometry - a field in which he spent many years as a teacher and as an engineer. After reading this extremely interesting book, a quote from Bob Dylan came to my mind: "There's no exit in any direction 'cept the one that you can't see with your eyes."