|
|
|
He’s done with Da Vinci: Art History Professor
George Gorse has had enough of The Code, the
hype, the endless questions – not the artist.
|
 |
You won’t bump into Art History Professor George Gorse at
the box office when The Da Vinci Code movie opens
May 19. He only reluctantly read the book, and he has
no plans to plunk down nine bucks to see the film. After
three years of fielding questions from readers of the
conspiracy-filled tome, he’s pretty much done with Da
Vinci. “I’m waiting for it to go away,” says Gorse, an
expert in Italian Renaissance art.
He may be in for a long wait. Some 46
million copies are in print, according to the Associated
Press, and the movie starring Tom Hanks is
expected to be a big hit. In case you’ve been cloistered for
the last few years, Dan Brown’s novel revolves around a
secret kept hidden for centuries: that Jesus Christ was
married to Mary Magdalene, they had a child and their blood
line survived into modern Europe. According to the novel,
Leonardo da Vinci was in on the secret and clues to the
truth lie hidden in his masterpieces such as The Last Supper
and Mona Lisa.
|
|
Professor George Gorse has fielded more than his
share of Da Vinci Code questions. |
|
|
|
|
The book is a fictional thriller that begins with a murder
at the Louvre in Paris. But the story's prologue also
asserts that “all descriptions of artwork,
architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel
are accurate.’’ And that’s where the problems start,
according to Gorse, who says many readers believe the book’s
underlying theories are nonfiction.
”The play on the line between fiction and nonfiction is very
insidious,” says Gorse. “It’s a bad example for all of us.”
Gorse finds the novel’s interpretations of Leonardo da
Vinci’s art are off base at best. Take the case of
Leonardo’s famous mural, The Last Supper and the androgynous
appearance of Christ’s disciple, John, within that work of
art. The Da Vinci Code makes the leap that the figure
traditionally considered to be John is really Mary
Magdalene, Christ’s secret wife. But Gorse points out that
John was traditionally portrayed as androgynous, emotional
and distraught in art of that time – not just in da Vinci’s
work – perhaps to represent his traditional depiction as the
disciple with the closest emotional ties to Christ.
Also in The Last Supper, the disciple Peter is clutching a
knife, which The Code suggests is a sign he’s plotting to
kill Mary Magdalene. Gorse says there’s a far more
compelling – and obvious – explanation: that Leonardo was
drawing upon the gospel account in which Peter cuts off a
man’s ear in an attempt to prevent Christ from being
seized by the authorities.
As for the tome’s wider premise, “there’s no evidence the
Magdalene was ever married to Christ, there’s no evidence
they had a daughter and there’s no evidence of a bloodline,”
says Gorse. “This is all a 19th or 20th century invention.”
Gorse finds the novel’s popularity says more about our
modern – or postmodern – times than it does about history.
“People are feeling things are out of control,” with wars,
global warning and social tensions, says Gorse. “Conspiracy
theories “present instant solutions that people find
intriguing and appealing.”
Gorse didn’t expect to become a Da Vinci Code debunker.
After he learned of the novel’s premise, he was determined
not to read it. But students kept asking him questions about
it, and when Claremont Graduate University asked him to
participate in a panel discussion about the book, he had no
choice but to take in the tome. Gorse later participated in
a second CGU panel discussion and in 2004 he appeared on a
History Channel program, “Beyond the Da Vinci Code,” which
has aired over and over due to the popularity of the topic.
Most recently, Gorse held forth on the book to a packed room
at Scripps College in January. But he doesn’t want to devote
too much time to the Code.
”I’m supposed to feel grateful that this draws attention to
my poor little field of art history,” says Gorse. “Just the
opposite. People have always been interested in art and
Leonardo. This just throws you off into dealing with
misconception, shoddy thinking, mythmaking, one layer after
another, big piles of it.”
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Explore Pomona's Web |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find It |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
