Paul Stallan

Truth & Harmony

In the course of researching a project with the Duke of Buccleuch I could not help but study the Duke’s  beautiful Da Vinci painting. As if to illustrate a point, or rather an approach that RMJM might take to interpreting  the historic Dalkeith Estate and its architecture, I undertook to deconstruct his painting the Madonna of the Yarnwinder. 

Over a long weekend I researched the painting and could not find any learned academic assessment of the painting that detailed its formal composition. With some tracing paper I decided to try to analyse the painting myself drawing and overdrawing on the painting to understand if there was any underlying diagram or rationale. 

What I found genuinely excited me. My scribbles began in my humble opinion to crystallise. In summary the baby Jesus is looking at the cross on the yarnstick as if understanding his fate. The yarnstick has two diagonals though which set up a dynamic perspective across the painting focusing on a far away hill again significant relative to his future. Jesus is also set at 45 degrees to provide both movement and status. Mary is set within the composition in a very different manner with her bodily form outlining a perfect golden section isosceles triangle. Underlying the painting are lines of union that structure the image. 

What is beautiful are the two overlapping grids, the dynamic grid and the static, beautifully developing a clear narrative and harmony. 

The third order supporting the composition that I discovered is that the paintings has a 52 degrees diagonal if you draw from one corner to the other diagonally opposite corner. 52 degrees is the angle of incline on the Great Pyramid of Giza in Eygpt dating back to 2560 BC. If you hand the painting on its right side for example it describes the cross section of Giza. The yarnstick also features in this overlay of compositional lines capturing the angle of the earth’s ecliptic plane. The baby Jesus’ finger further confirms this narrative by pointing up at an angle of 23.5 degrees which is the exactly the angle of the earth’s tilt. 

So in summary we have the two tenants of classicism represented in the painting ... 

'Truth' represented by astronomy and the geometry of heaven the earth and the stars.

And ...

‘Harmony’ represented by the golden section and the proportional system that structures all natural form. 

The attached image outlines some of the diagrams that I generated...