Ancient Aliens – Da Vinci’s Forbidden Codes: Researchers claim hidden messages can be found within the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and other art throughout history, that may reveal an extraterrestrial influence.
Ancient Aliens is an American television series that premiered on April 20, 2010, on the History channel. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment in a documentary style, the program presents hypotheses of ancient astronauts and proposes that historical texts, archaeology, and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial contact. The show has been widely criticized by historians, cosmologists, archaeologists and other scientific circles for presenting and promoting pseudoscience, pseudohistory and pseudoarcheology.
Ancient Aliens – Da Vinci’s Forbidden Codes
The first segment opens wit the sale of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi last year for a record-breaking $400 million to a Saudi prince. The show alleges that the painting is one of a series that when properly assembled and decoded will reveal “the secrets of the universe.” This leads to a potted history of Leonardo’s life and the Renaissance. After writing a bizarre conspiracy theory about the painting’s magic powers last year, William Henry travels to Florence this year on the show’s dime to speculate wildly about Leonardo’s secret knowledge.
The show alleges that Leonardo was involved in unusual philosophies and various heresies that would have put him in opposition to the Catholic Church. The evidence for this, as given in the show, is a preparatory sketch for his unfinished Adoration of the Magi (c. 1480-1482) in which pillars in a vaguely Egyptian style (only because they are unfinished sketches of Roman columns lacking Corinthian detail) are seen rising from the ruins of a church. The show suggests that this meant that Leonardo originally intended to depict the resurrection of forbidden ancient knowledge.
However, the traditional understanding of the painting is that the “church” is actually meant to depict the Basilica of Maxentius, which Roman legend supposedly said would stand until a virgin gave birth. Leonardo did not actually paint the existing picture; another artist painted over his preparatory under-drawing. He supposed conspiracy is nothing more than the difference between two artists’ interpretations.
