Poll: Do you see Leonardo's hidden self-portrait in his drawing of bones?

I confess, I did not.

Article and images here.

Nope, can’t see it either.

When I followed the instructions (stand back, look to the side) the two pictures looked a lot alike. But just looking at the bones? No way.

I can see a face, but it doesn’t really look like Leonardo. Reminds me more of Shakespeare, but mostly that’s the shape of the hair (foot) on the right.

I have to squint pretty severely to make it look like a face.

I wouldn’t have seen it without prompting, but yeah, I can see it. You need to let your eyes go unfocused, and when you hit the right level of blurriness, it sort of jumps out at you.

After I read there was a self-portrait in it, I saw it right away in the topmost photo.

It’s easier to see in the smaller pictures at the top rather than the larger, more detailed side-by-side comparisons below it. The image of Leonardo is suggested by the shadows and angles of the skeletons, and the magnified details of the larger photo distract you from that. It’s also 90 degrees off, so it’s hard to visualize an overlay.

I agree it’s hardly a convincing “self-portrait.” It does hint at a face, but it’s not obviously of Leonardo.

VERY INTERESTING!

I saw it very clearly as the page was loading, but as soon as the image came up to full resolution, I couldn’t see it anymore. By squinting and blurring the image, I could see it again.

Seems like he was playing around with hi-pass/low-pass filtering like this image from Dali: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~culicove/Publications/Lincoln.pdf

Yes, I can see it. Had it been anyone other than Da Vinci (ha ha ha pedants!) I’d dismiss it as coincidence. But it is probably deliberate. It’s the sort of thing he would have liked a lot.

When I look at it from across the room I see a face, but it’s not recognizable as Da Vinci himself.

It’s a sailboat!

It’s…it’s… some bones. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

It’s not Davinci. It’s a portrait of me, further proof I invent time travel in the future.

I bet he secretly traveled to Mars and made a self-portrait there too. But that was when he was younger and unbearded. It’s a little-known fact that his flying machines were actually ion-propelled spacecraft, thus explaining why they didn’t work too well in Earth’s atmosphere.

I can super-impose a picture of two monkeys f-ing a football that match up just as well. So, my answer is “maybe”.

Does anybody not like monkeys?

The side-by-side comparison jumped right out to me.

Not really, no.

Despite the fact my natural tendency would be to dismiss the notion as silly, I think this may have some merit. The more I look at the two, the less I see as legitimate reasons for the similar allignment and shading being anything other than a clever copy of his self portrait.

Yes, I immediately saw it as it loaded, looked for reasons to debunk it but now grudgingly admit it’s a distinct possibility.

I think it’s just the good old propensity of the mind to perceive faces in arbitrary patterns. Same as seeing faces in clouds.

If I try *really *hard to see it, I … sorta kinda do. But I think it is a strain.

It’s a schooner, you idiot! :wink: