Eucharist

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This page shows the Da Vinci Star geometry as contained in the Poussin painting The Institution of the Eucharist, 1640, now in the Louvre Museum. This painting was commissioned by King Louis the 13th for the Chapel of St. Germain, right next to the Church of St. Germain-des-Pres in Paris which was built by the Merovingian King Childebert in 556 to house holy relics including the tunic of Saint Vincent. Childebert was actually buried in this church, as were numerous later Merovingian kings. Here is a good webpage about the church and its Merovingian tombs- http://www.paris-walking-tours.com/churchofstgermaindespres.html. Apparently, Poussin thought this an appropriate place for one of his concealed geometry paintings.

The first image shows the plain painting itself. The keys to setting up the geometry are three lines on the floor at the bottom of the painting. I will point out these lines in red in the images showing the parts of the geometry that they correspond to. The horizontal floor line used to set the position of the lower right corner of the tilted square is also a convenient reference for true horizontal. Since the convergence point of the 72 degree floor line (the reference for the centerline of the large star) and the 60 degree floor line (the reference for the diagonal of the tilted square) gives us the position of the top point of the large star, which is also the position of the upper left corner of the tilted square, and since the position of the lower right corner of the tilted square is given by the intersection point of the 60 degree floor line with the lowest horizontal floor line, we know the exact position and size of the whole geometry because all of the figures are precisely coordinated with each other. Using these three floor lines as our references, there is only one possible outcome and it is shown in the graphics below. Therefore, all of the alignments of the geometry with features such as fingers and eyes were not chosen by me but were the inevitable outcome.

The geometry shown on this page is absolutely identical to the geometry which was applied to da Vinci's Last Supper and the other art works as shown on the corresponding pages of this website. Every angle is accurate to one ten millionth of a degree, due to the software employed, in all of these graphics.

The next image shows the double star figure. The red line at the lower end of the centerline of the large star shows how this centerline is referenced by the 72 degree line on the floor. The centerline of the small star is referenced by the fold at the bottom of the lower right man's clothing, next to his left foot. The gray line is at exactly 9 degrees to the right side of the large star's surrounding pentagon.

I didn't specify all of the alignments of the figures with the features of the painting because they are so numerous and I am sure you can pick them out for yourself anyway. That's half the fun of viewing these images. Maybe you'll notice something I didn't.