Leonardo’s Puzzle:
A Journey Across Time and Art
Explore the connections between Renaissance genius and ancient mysteries
Uncovering a 500-Year-Old Mystery
Through meticulous research and a passion for uncovering the unknown, Doug Zimmerman has revealed hidden puzzles encoded in Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpieces.
These clues lead to four megalithic sites in Brittany, France, each revealing its own piece of the puzzle.
Following Leonardo’s Trail of Clues
Doug Zimmerman’s journey began with a single optical illusion in the Isleworth Mona Lisa. It was here that two subtle brushstrokes hinted at the Vilane River outflow, marking the location of Dolmen du Crapaud. Over four years, Doug painstakingly followed these breadcrumbs, uncovering a hidden map within Leonardo’s works.
"Through modern tools like Google Earth and artistic overlays, Doug connected these clues to four megalithic sites across Brittany, France. Leonardo’s genius extended beyond art—each site was precisely aligned with celestial markers, including Orion’s Belt, revealing a masterful intertwining of science, art, and history.
THE JOURNEY TO SOLVE THE PUZZLE
Leonardo, this journey should never have happened because I was not researching you at all. Your life and contributions to us have been well-studied by scholars and experts for centuries to a level of consensus we call “settled science”. I was researching a French Master artist, Nicolas Poussin, who succeeded you by over 100 years, and the geographical shapes I was finding in his landscapes. He seemed fond for the Bretagne region of France and incorporated distinctive coastline shapes of this region in his art, emphasizing the northern notch with the three Saints (Brieux, Malo, Michel) and the southern coastline at the Vilane and Loire Rivers outflows, which presents with perceived visual mirrored symmetry from northwest to southeast.
I wanted to know more about any connections Nicolas had to the Bretagne region, so I searched our information repositories (we call Google) with the criteria ‘Poussin Bretagne Brittany’. Brittany is the modern name we use for Bretagne. The search returned 5 images on the first page; the first four pertained to the search criteria but the fifth image did not at all as it was obviously not even a Poussin. The subject, a young woman sitting at ¾ profile, gave me a sense of familiarity when I noticed her smile.
Leonardo, the fifth image was what we believe is your first portrait of Lisa Gherardini, later Madam Lisa Giocondo, wife of a wealthy Florentine. We call this painting the earlier Mona Lisa based on its known provenance. I was not looking for Her, She found me, and I was captured. I had never seen Her before and I quickly knew I had to learn everything I could about Her. Experts today believe this work to be incomplete and some doubt it is even by your hand. They cite the lifeless color palette, the sketched in background, and the poorly executed dark treed island reflected downward without a reflective medium. The two brush strokes leaning into each other off the right edge of the dark feature have never been recognized by experts and simply discarded as an incomplete thought. I suspect you would be chuckling by now.
About 100 years after She was created, an anonymous artist set about ‘finishing’ your earlier Mona Lisa based on the consensus view of experts of the work left to be done. I call it the Oslo Mona Lisa as it is in the National Museum of Art in Oslo, Norway. They “improved” the
color palette, added water and detail to resolve the treed island and downward reflection, and finished the sky background, eliminating the hatching. The two brush strokes were out of mind and discarded. To modern experts, this is settled science, and no new knowledge could change their minds, especially coming from an amateur. They are seeing exactly what you want them to see having created just enough detail to manipulate their perceptions. Leonardo, the optical illusion in your earlier Mona Lisa has completely deceived everyone for over 500 years as no one even suspects the puzzle you encoded in your art. It was serendipity that presented Her image to me and set me on this journey. I am in awe, sir, of your genius, imagination, and engineering to conceal clues to the puzzle in plain view.
Your painting is now privately owned and vaulted in Switzerland, out of sight except for rare occasions celebrating your life and accomplishments. It is administered and curated by the Mona Lisa Foundation, a rather large organization for a single painting. Curators of one painting or Protectors of the secrets within it?​​
THE OPTICAL ILLUSION
When I saw the dark feature for the first time, I actually thought it was damage or some sort of Rorschach test, interpreting mirrored ink blots on folded paper. As I looked closer at the detail, the full vertical right edge seemed familiar, a shape I had seen recently; the Vilane and Loire Rivers outflows in the southern Bretagne coastline. Using our capabilities to photograph the earth from above in space, I created a side-by-side image of the full vertical right edge of the dark feature and the terrestrial image of the relevant section of the southern Bretagne coastline. The visual similarity is certainly strong, now how can I prove that concealing the coastline profile was your intent? Leonardo, it did not take long for me to know that the answer was in the two brush strokes. If your intent was a coastline profile, the two brush strokes must represent something on the ground at the Vilane River outflow. I magnified the earth image at the Vilane River outflow and without too much effort, found a collapsed megalithic site in exactly the right place with exactly the right shape. Dolmen du Crapaud near Billiers, France. It was at this moment I realized the magnitude of what I had found, and experts have not demonstrated nor shared any knowledge of this at all. I had proven your intent, the optical illusion, and your purposeful deception.
Instead of being a dark treed island reflected downward as depicted in the Oslo Mona Lisa, there is no reflection at all nor the need for a reflective medium. The entire dark feature is NEGATIVE space in the work. To engineer the dark feature, you exploited the visual vertical symmetry of the southern Bretagne coastline and added a ‘disguise’, in yellow, to create the perception of a horizontal primary feature reflected, all in plain view. Thus, the Optical Illusion. I found that you described an optical illusion in the form of an instruction in your Notebooks on Light and Shade, Volume 1, Chapter 2 Linear Perspective, Paragraph 48 On Drawing Outline, “Consider with greatest care the form of the outline of every object, and the character of their undulations. And these undulations must be separately studied, as to whether the curves are composed of arched convexities or angular concavities.”
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Experts first saw the convexities of the dark feature outline and never studied the concavities because the two brush strokes made no sense to them. Leonardo, I first saw the concavities of the dark feature outline because of my geographical research and proved your intent by identifying the megalithic site represented by the two brush strokes. Experts, discarding the two brush strokes, have only ever seen the convexities, which is why they continue to see what you want them to see.
INLAND, A MAP
With the southern Bretagne coastline and Dolmen du Crapaud identified, everything to the right must by inland, a map. Nothing was obvious in that area of the painting, but closer inspection suggested highly faded artefacts were present. I use a tool to improve contrast and visibility of artefacts in images. When I finished processing the inland area, I was stunned by the profusion of symbols and artefacts, having faded badly over the centuries.
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At the top of the inland area I recognized a ‘key’ symbol with numbers to the right and a word below the numbers. I have yet to understand their purpose. Inland from the dolmen are two symbols roughly in line, the first being unrecognized as yet. The second symbol appears to be lensed to call attention to it, so I set out to identify it. Two months would pass until I finally found the symbol and its meaning. I even adopted it as the symbol of my work. I found it to be from the Cypriot Syllabary, which preceded ancient Greek on Cyprus. Leonardo, we know you spent some time on Cyprus and likely learned of the Syllabary while there. The symbol “su” has a context of physical location, similar to how “zu” is used in modern German.
The ‘location’ context of the symbol, on a map, meant I needed to do another earth image overlay of the inland terrestrial area with the painting area. I used the coastline profile and dolmen (two brush strokes) as registration marks to align the image overlay with the painting. Zooming in on the earth image as before, the Syllabary symbol unambiguously marks a megalithic site near Saint-Just. Chateau Bu, a complicated arrangement of standing stones and stone circles, is the second megalithic site. The overlay also shows an undocumented large circular tumulus of stones between a farmer’s two fields marked by the unrecognized symbol. I can see a well-worn tractor path between the fields around the stones. Further research is needed here as well as contacting the farmer.
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OR, and this idea just came to me as I write this, the unrecognized symbol may not by Cypriot Syllabary at all, which is why I cannot find it. I suspect it may be a representation of Orion’s Belt, your intent to provide a subtle hint at what to do with the two onshore megalithic sites. I noticed the Belt was not a straight line and the intersection point of all three lines was not equidistant from the ends of the Belt. The overlay I created today confirmed my suspicion and I believe your intent. Since this is a brand- new realization, I will continue the journey as it occurred. I did not need the hint after all though it would have saved me a lot of time.
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Leonardo, it was at this point I took a step back to review and reconsider your engineering of the optical illusion incorporating negative space and orientation dysphoria, the southern Bretagne coastline, and symbols marking two seemingly unrelated megalithic sites about 50 kilometers apart. First, as far as I know, I am the only one seeing your hidden artefacts, so as an amateur, they do not exist until one of your experts says so. The images I created to visualize your clues and my explanation of what you had done to conceal them are compelling and completely defendable. I was confident enough at this point to reach out to experts to share and discuss the visual evidence I had generated so far.
The Mona Lisa Foundation, owners of your earlier Mona Lisa, responded that I was not qualified to talk to them. Done. Noah Charney and Dr. Martin J Kemp were the only two responders that engaged. Noah provided positive interest though completely skeptical, advising and mentoring me to a degree which I greatly appreciate. Martin vehemently insists that concealed artefacts and secret messages do not exist in your art nor that of any other Renaissance artist. He is our top expert on all things about you and has done master classes to that effect, which I attended. I attempted persistence with Martin that did not prevail, which is a failure I truly regret. I want Martin to know what I know as he has dedicated his career to you. Leonardo, at his point, I was on my own and I knew you had more for me to find.
“THEY ALMOST LINE UP”
I knew I had to find a connection between Dolmen du Crapaud and Chateau Bu. I plotted them both on a terrestrial image of the southern Bretagne coastline and simply “stared” at them for guidance. All I could think to do was draw a line from Chateau Bu to Dolmen du Crapaud, and out into the bay. In doing so, I noticed it ALMOST lined up with an island just off the coast, Hoedic Island, and its sister Houat Island. I wondered first if it was your intent that the line intersected the island and you were slightly off in your positioning, but I quickly dismissed inaccuracy. Even if the line did intersect, what would that mean? I had no idea, and I was stuck with no way forward. Five months later, serendipity would intervene again.
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I was watching a performance of a show using our modern-day camera obscura we call television. The show was hosted by Scott Wolter and is called America Unearthed, and the topic was the three obelisks in our New York City. Near the end of the performance, three small obelisks were placed on a large map of New York City and a straight line drawn through them, just missing one of the obelisks. Scott stated, “look, they ALMOST line up”, and I felt a shiver go through my body and tears flooded my eyes, what just happened? I knew those words. I watched intently as Scott suggested
a solution to the placement of the obelisks, the linear and spatial asymmetry of Orion’s Belt Stars. As the obelisks presented a decent overlay of the Belt Stars, serendipity had provided my solution, and my way forward.
THE SECRET IN THE PAINTING WITH NOT A SINGLE BRUSH STROKE
I retrieved an image of the Orion constellation from my Sky Atlas to overlay onto the painting, right-to-left, Chateau Bu then Dolmen du Crapaud with the
center star. Right-to-left as is your way. The third star marked an empty area in the negative space, but extremely near a distinctive curve in the coastline profile. I had noticed of a curve like that when investigating the line overlay with Hoedic Island geography and its immediate area.
Hoedic Island has a sister, Houat Island, just a few miles to the north. Houat has a distinctive beach coastline facing Hoedic. It is an asymmetrical arc that matches the
arced coastline profile in the painting
near the third star. Leonardo, I interpreted the Houat Island arced coastline as a confirmation marker. Since only Hoedic Island’s relative position is marked by the third star, the arced coastline is
how you demonstrated your intent to conceal the identity of Hoedic Island in plain view, without a single brush stroke.
I wondered if there were more clues in your earlier Mona Lisa. So far, I found the southern Bretagne coastline, 2 megalithic sites onshore in Bretagne and using Orion’s Belt Stars, identified Hoedic Island offshore. To Her right is a “bump” in the horizon that is actually concave. I found it to be a closeup
of the Vilane River outflow, matching several points to a terrestrial view. Is this another confirmation marker Leonardo that we
understood your intent regarding the 2 brush strokes? Does Hoedic Island have megalithic sites? Yes it does, and these sites must be represented in your other artwork, somewhere. I knew a couple of your “tells” now (pointing and Orion’s Belt Stars) and I would use them to move forward with the puzzle.
Experts consider the sky background in your earlier Mona Lisa to be “sketched-in” and another reason they think this painting is incomplete. My aging eyesight is why I saw what you were doing in the sky background. I looked at the sky without my corrective lenses and detected shapes and angles in the hatching with blurred vision. I immediately knew what you were doing, creating a “venetian blind” effect to obscure hidden artefacts. Blurring defeats the hatching and reveals the artefacts, but they, too, are blurred, but recognizable. In the sky, right, I first found the bird in flight which I believe designates orientation and visual scale of the artefacts. Beneath the bird, I see a
square, the left side of it labeled “ v. dr.” . It took that to mean Via Dolorosa, which meant the square was Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and other artefacts point to Station 11 of the Cross, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, as a site of importance. Below that station is said to be the tomb of Adam. The sky left is a bit more challenging to visualize and recognize. My best efforts suggest you are depicting Aksum, Ethiopia with the artefacts I am seeing, like a domed building and nearby obelisk. Jerusalem and Aksum depicted in the sky background? I am not a biblical historian so this would only make sense to me later on in conjunction with other evidence.
6. Discovering Hoedic Island’s Significance
Content:
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Detailed analysis of clues pointing to Hoedic Island in various paintings.
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Identification of the Dolmen de la Croix and Menhir de la Vierge as two megalithic sites on the island.
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Confirmation through overlays and visual markers in Leonardo’s works.
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7. Solving the Puzzle
Content:
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Final assembly of all clues to pinpoint a specific location on Hoedic Island.
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Coordinates marking the location: 47°20'23"N, 2°52'07"W.
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Revelation of the underground chamber and its connection to the Ark of the Covenant.
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8. Reflection and Future Implications
Content:
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Doug’s thoughts on the significance of his discovery and its potential historical impact.
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Mention of the challenges faced in gaining recognition from experts.
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Connection to other artists, like Nicolas Poussin, who may have known about the same secrets.
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9. Citations and Acknowledgments
Content:
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Credits to public domain images and references to specific artworks analyzed in the journey.
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Acknowledgment of contributors and tools used in the research.
