Siegfried Woldhek: The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci?

[spaik007]

look its a fun thing, but what use of this information is there? other than now we can have actors in movies look more like da vinci?

and the age error is something you really should check before you do this talk

[artvandelay13]

What does he mean when he says the portraits are "en face, three quarters" (or something like that)?

[art4med]

Anything new? This is only marginally more-compelling than most theories.

And it leaves out major works that are mightily better contenders. This made it to TED?? Meh.

[InfinityOE]

A good theory. Thanks for the upload.

[LysitheanTwilight]

@mezerome the others were sketches, not paintings, by the look of things.

[undefeatableneko]

only one is considered an actual portrait (?)

[MertonHayford]

Great example of reasoning by elimination. The speaker's own portraits looked interesting, too.

[meesterschilders]

placed into my playlist of Leonardo da Vinci, thanks

[hudd06]

the old man's nose doesnt have similar charecteristics

[crudhousefull]

@hudd06 Nose grows real big when you age. They younger you are the smaller your nose. Look at any old woman's nose and you'll see that the knob at the end's real big, which is rarely the case with young women.

[DerSchnurrbart]

I remember reading that the "Old Man" portrait was Leonardo's father and seeing another portrait that was supposed to be Leonardo. That portrait was not shown in this video.

[elguerreromuisca]

if its true or not, all I can say its that its very convincing....

[vosogo]

Did anyone notice how he got DaVinci's age wrong in the old man portrait? He states (and shows) that DaVinci was 63 in 1513, but clearly he was 61 years old, not 63.

Sorry to be so OCD, can't help it I suppose...

[vitruvian8807]

That was really cool.

[stewdart]

There could be a likeness in Vitruvian Man

and the musician and other paintings of his a bit of the artist always comes out in there work but the noses on these works are too short definately not him if you want to see the true face of Da vinci check out this in google search and compare,

this is truly the real face of Da Vinci

and what a wonder to behold

[Hidden self-portrait of Da Vinci is 'discovered in a manuscript']

[Larvial]

This study was presented by me in November-06

See: "leonardo codigo abierto" in google.

[mezerome]

worth a look! thanx for posting that!!

[GodoftheGeeks]

Fascinating

[SammyBenYakoub]

look at the video: Alison Jackson: A surprising look at celebrity

thats something relevant. THats good. But this video of the face of da vinci is not. And I dont know why but I feel deeply that the da vinci video is crap.

[SammyBenYakoub]

ok, I apologise for the way I said it, normally I am not that rude, but ok, I apologise for that. BUt I still think that this is a worthless speach. why? it is full of mistakes. 1. het eliminates the portretes of ugly peaople. Thats highly subjective and also beauty standards change over time, so people that we think are ugly can be found very handsome in in the past. 2. I think the face of Leo is als very present in the mona lisa. HE played with it.

[mudd35]

outstanding!

[54spiritedwill54]

Fascinating...Leonardo's face finally revealed

[SammyBenYakoub]

this is the biggest bullshit.

1 mistake in a way of thinking and you will end in pavarotti's face. thizs is such a non sientific way, an absurd way, to handle this case. please, go home, and fuck yourself in the mimrror.

[darkominem]

nice job sammy.

you totally outsmarted this expert with unnecessary insults and NO EVIDENCE supporting YOUR case whatsoever.

this might not be lab science, but it IS forensic science (which is used for figuring out what's true in history).

goodness, think before you type.

[Reido2828]

your quite the ignorant moron you know that

[intrepgun]

he checked his work against the best information he had and came out on top. where is there a problem here? in his explanation? the way he narrowed down the pictures? it was only a five minute long talk, i'm sure he actually looked at each one.

all i'm saying is- if he's not right, it's sure a neat coincidence.

[MrDichotomies]

He starts off with a bad assumption, one an illustrator and artist should know better than to make, and that is in eliminating profile portraits from his list of possibles. I've drawn self-portraits in profile, as have many artists. You just need two mirrors, which Leonardo would have had. If your deductions are based on false assumptions from the basis of your argument, how much of your theory can be correct?

[strictpolicy]

agreed, surely a man like leonardo who even used the camera obscura could figure out how to draw his own profile... yet i do think he found the true face of leonardo

[akylae101]

Ugh, TurkBoy, I accidentally clicked spam instead of reply, sorry :-( Wanted to say this probably falls in the entertainment part of TED. Again, apologies.

[sureshmike19427]

3:20 In 1490 Leonardo's age is 38 and in 1513 his age is 63. My math says that it should be 61...

[mysticstranger666]

Your math is right.

[BlazeGreenwood]

No it's not proof at all.

But it's right.

[NoFreeSpeechonYT]

Why is this part of this series? That was just ridiculous.

[winstonharris]

very good and convincing presentation. it just goes to show that art experts may know a lot about techniques and history, but have difficulties to look from within, from an artist's perspective. the deduction is powerful and makes eminent sense.

[StellarRay5050]

His method of deduction is ridiculous. It's all based on his assumptions...

The funniest one was:

"We knew he was a very handsome even beautiful man so we can eliminate all the ones *I* deemed ugly."

This guy is a nut trying to make it sound like he used any logical deduction...

[wfd57fatman]

I suppose that I could do something similar. If I reach back to my lower left butt cheek, I can assume that I have a left half of an ass. If I do the same at my lower right, I can assume that I have a right half of an ass. With this knowledge, I can deduce that I do indeed have an ass. This information however will not provide the length of which my left testicle currently sags.

[pkinredt]

this is amazing

[gobee53]

Gasp!Its like looking into a mirror..except I'm cross-eyed ,have a mono-brow,bowlegged,knocked kneed humpbacked and my Mom and Dad are my aunt and uncle. OTHERWISE Its me all over again.Whew. Who knew?

[kingVlad514]

amazing

[alfarnir]

extremely well presented, thank you!

[gensing]

wow, that was a really smart method of deduction. i like seeing what leonardo looked like as a young person.

[Guellard]

1485 - 33

1490 - 38

1513 - 63 ?

It ought to be either 61 or 35 - 40.

[kingVlad514]

It's true, good observation.

[per321k]

I have heard that the mother of Leonardo Da Vinci was an Arab. So he was half Arabian. Does anybody know more about it?

[georgio316]

no not true

[akaflint10]

No one really knows much about Leonardo's mother. There is speculation that she was a slave, an Arab, one of the Cathars, etc. Most likely she was a servant. Leonardo's father couldn't marry her because she wasn't of the same social class. Leonardo was born out of wedlock, and his mother was married off to a peasant. He was raised in his father's household. Read Serge Bramly's biography of Leonardo, one of the best books about him.

[per321k]

ok thanks :)

[Guellard]

Wow that is a great video!

[grazon]

bite me that's how I felt.

[DerekTweedy]

Intriguing process.

[PolarisCZ]

Da Vinci was an amazing man.

Maybe we could use all four images as reference for some CGI portrait...

[jdbohdan]

Dumb

[eggman913]

Fascinating...Leonardo's face finally revealed

[jonoroll]

..wouldnt people have drawn portraits of him also?

[akaflint10]

Raphael's fresco 'The School of Athens' has a supposed portrait of Leonardo later in life, depicted as the philosopher Plato. There is also a Michelangelo sketch of a bearded figure holding up a skull, with the word 'leardo' beneath it, which may be a drawing of Leonardo. Both Michelangelo and Raphael knew Leonardo; Michelangelo and Leonardo were bitter rivals.

[grazon]

I feel smarter just from having watched this.

[Cr3ativity]

So you think it convinced me? Not at all, in fact you might as well throw in Bernini's version of David and say that it was "Leonardo da Vinci." Only because the facial features seem exact or quite similar does not mean it is the person. For all I know, there is a twin of I roaming somewhere across Earth that I have yet had a chance to meet. Simplicity is not a factual solution, at least, not always.

[akaflint10]

Bernini'd 'David' is actually a self-portait of Bernini. While the evidence here is somewhat circumstantial, it's a lot more convincing than Lilian Schwartz's assertion that the 'Mona Lisa' is Leonardo's self-portrait. Also, the idea that the 'Vitruvian Man' drawing is a self-portrait is nothing new. We're all so used to the image of Leonardo as an old man with a long beard, it's easy to forget that he was young once, and considered to be the handomest man in Florence.

[Cr3ativity]

I understand what you are trying to resonate, but if you have ever cracked his book open that has various sketches of people you will find that many of Leonardo's facial features are incorporated in almost each sketch. Either he was obsessed with himself, or he enjoyed self-portraits. I came across the idea that Leonardo da Vinci's portrait at ~70 years of age may not be exactly him. The beard and long hair may have been used as disguise for his other self-portraits during his younger age....

[akaflint10]

I am very familiar with Leonardo's work, I've been studying him for more than 35 years. Maybe you are confusing his style of drawing with the his 'features'. His aesthetic sense did cause many figures in his paintings and drawings to look similar, but that doesn't mean they are self-portraits. In his 'Treatise on Painting', he cautions artists to avoid drawing all their figures to resemble themselves.

[Youbaphile]

I believe this totally. Its common sense; why else would all those portraits have the same face structure?

[akaflint10]

As someone who's studied Leonardo for more than 30 years, I think this is pretty convincing. Good work, and thanks!

[dark14cs]

It's amazing how things are so simple sometimes.

[spacedemonebu]

yeah, i thought they were going to use some crazy x-ray technique to find the faint image in the paint of his face from the light that reflected off him as he was painting or something. occam's razor wins again!

[Zetimenvec]

thank god for the new intro. no where near as annoying as the other.

[KittyGotSued]

I miss the BMW logo ;)

[Driven000009]

Hah yeah for the first time I didn't have to mute it!

[ndjarnag]

Exactly!!!

that stupid "bonging sound". I hated it!!!

geez...this is much better :)

[arun6004]

Totally Agree

[arun6004]

Totally Agree