# Poll: Do you see Leonardo's hidden self-portrait in his drawing of bones?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 12, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148 "2009-03-12T00:25:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/1 "2009-03-12T00:25:09Z")
I confess, I did not.
Article and images [here](http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/eastern_oregon_professor_wife.html).
---
### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/2 "2009-03-12T00:28:34Z")
Nope, can’t see it either.
---
### Author:  [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/3 "2009-03-12T00:38:17Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/4 "2009-03-12T01:39:35Z")
I can see a face, but it doesn’t really look like Leonardo. Reminds me more of [Shakespeare](http://broadwayworld.com/article/Georgia_Shakespeare_Hosts_High_School_Acting_Competition_20090218), 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.
---
### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/5 "2009-03-12T01:46:12Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/6 "2009-03-12T01:47:31Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/7 "2009-03-12T01:48:21Z")
**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](http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~culicove/Publications/Lincoln.pdf)
---
### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/8 "2009-03-12T02:54:46Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/9 "2009-03-12T03:02:27Z")
When I look at it from across the room I see a face, but it’s not recognizable as Da Vinci himself.
---
### Author:  [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/10 "2009-03-12T03:06:13Z")
It’s a sailboat!
---
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/11 "2009-03-12T03:34:38Z")
It’s…it’s… some bones. Some people have way too much time on their hands.
---
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/12 "2009-03-12T03:41:28Z")
It’s not Davinci. It’s a portrait of me, further proof I invent time travel in the future.
---
### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/13 "2009-03-12T03:52:07Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/14 "2009-03-12T05:35:17Z")
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?
---
### Author:  [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/15 "2009-03-12T07:22:36Z")
The side-by-side comparison jumped right out to me.
---
### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/16 "2009-03-12T08:21:14Z")
Not really, no.
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/17 "2009-03-12T14:01:24Z")
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.
---
### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/18 "2009-03-12T14:44:48Z")
I think it’s just the good old propensity of the mind to perceive faces in arbitrary patterns. Same as seeing faces in clouds.
---
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/19 "2009-03-12T14:58:44Z")
If I try \*really \*hard to see it, I … sorta kinda do. But I think it is a strain.
---
### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148/20 "2009-03-12T15:21:50Z")
> [@Ro0sh](#):
>
> It’s a sailboat!
It’s a schooner, you idiot! 😉
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-see-leonardos-hidden-self-portrait-in-his-drawing-of-bones/489148.md?page=2)