Truthful Liars
I can’t wait to visit Vatican City someday. Not necessarily for religious purposes (of course it’s part of the package), but for purposes of appreciating the aesthetics of the art there. Hands down, that 121 acres of land is one of the most beautiful places on earth if you’re into classical art. It shares the dinner table with places like La Lourve Museum, Uffizi Gallery, and the British Museum. Now, the other three are just museums, but for Vatican, it’s an entire city. The architecture, the frescoes, the paintings, the sculptures, the basilicas and chapels, the sarcophagi…amazing stuff. All these things have become the traces of the immortality of folks like Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Agesander of Rhodes, Arnaldo Pomodoro among others. A real-world Asgaard!
It’s not just the aesthetics that appeal to me in these magnificent art pieces. It’s the almost imperceptible information; hidden information in plain sight. It is also the monumental moments of history engraved in those art pieces. It’s also the doctrines disguised in those artworks. It’s the coded messages disguised in beauty. Look at it this way. We’ve evolved through the years. We encrypt data and store it in cloud with passcodes and tight security measures. These old guys just had to put all that highly classified information on a piece of canvas and hang it on a wall. Only the insiders decoded the information, while the rest of the population contemplated the beauty of the art piece with a generous bliss of ignorance.
You’ll probably contemplate Michaelangelo’s Creation of Man and fail to realize the interesting coincidence of God resembling a giant brain (God’s omniscience), or The Disputation Over The Most Holy Sacrament by Raphael and fail to notice that the Eucharist holds together the three churches, or the horror of La Resurrezione, and still fail to understand the fear of nuclear warfare that had done the world dirty in the 20th century…among many others. For years, people have contemplated the beauty of these frescos and art pieces while having no idea of the profound information they convey.
On the other hand, secret societies have used art to hide information in plain sight. It’s left to the philosophy of if you know you know. Names that come to mind are The Knight Templars, The Ancient Order of Foresters, The Orangemen, The Molly Maguires, The Odd Fellows, and several priories in the medieval ages. These guys had members across towns and even countries. Various symbols identified them, and they had constitutions, timetables and locations of important places disguised in paintings and frescos. They had signatures all over every work of art that they came up with. Only the insiders knew what was going on. For the rest of us, it was just art. But how did they manage to code these messages, doctrines, creeds, and constitutions in plain sight? Simple. Let’s do a free crash course on neuroscience and humanistic psychotherapy. Yes, you’re welcome! Close the door behind you.
The brain’s tendency to miss things hidden in plain sight largely depends on how it processes visual information. Gestalt principles highlight how the brain naturally perceives visual information as organized patterns or wholes, rather than separate parts grouped together in a collection. These laws of human perception describe how cerebral activity is fond of grouping similar elements, recognizing patterns and simplifying complex images whenever a visual image is presented. Knowingly or unknowingly, those artists used these principles to organize their artworks so that they are aesthetically appealing to the outsider, while pregnant with information for the insider. Twelve principles are involved. I summarized them for you!
Proximity: Objects that are close to one another (related or unrelated) are perceived as a group. Similarity: Similar Objects are perceived as related or part of the same group. Closure: The brain tends to complete incomplete figures to perceive a whole object. Continuity: The mind prefers continuous lines and patterns, perceiving them as a whole. Figure-Ground: The brain separates objects from their background to focus on the main figure. Symmetry: Symmetrical elements are perceived as part of the same group or as a cohesive whole. Common Fate: Elements moving in the same direction are perceived as part of a single group. Parallelism: Parallel elements tend to be associated with one another and are perceived as related. Connectedness: Elements that are visually connected, such as by lines or common edges, are perceived as a single unit. Common Region: Elements located within the same bounded area are perceived as a group. Element Connectedness: Elements that are physically connected, such as by lines, are perceived as a group. Synchrony: Visual elements that change simultaneously are perceived as being related or as part of the same group.
These principles are based on the idea that the brain organizes visual information into meaningful patterns and wholes, allowing us to make sense of complex visual environments quickly and efficiently. And if these are true, then I guess it’s a cup of tea to hide whatever information you want to hide in art pieces. How exactly? Hide it in the details; the human brain is too busy (or maybe too lazy?) to dig it out. Voila!
With such loopholes in cerebral activity, it becomes effortless to paradoxically outpour loads of information while actually also communicating something entirely different; and artists of various kinds use this a lot. You’ve probably sung that one song ever since you were a teenager, only one day to understand what exactly you have been singing all along. You’ve probably seen some symbols all your life, only to understand what they mean later in life. Artists do this a lot. Not necessarily because they are mean, but because they’re using a language they understand (art) to communicate what they feel has to be communicated. The challenge then comes to our end, just because we barely understand the language of artists; but for the few who do, they keep going back for more.
Interestingly, artists use lies to tell the truth, beauty to express the ugly state of things; serenity to express chaos; silence to express noise. I hope to get to Vatican City someday and spend a considerable amount of time contemplating those magnificent art pieces. Just as many other people, I am convinced they hold loads of information and knowledge; more than what just meets the eye. I know it might get complicated at times, and that is why I always pray for either the innocent bliss of the ignorant, or the grace to bear the knowledge. And if the cat is to be found dead, may curiosity be blamed.