The PoS Paintings

These are the paintings that the "prieure documents" say Berenger Sauniere went to view when he travelled to the Louvre in Paris: a painting by Poussin of the Shepherds of Arcadia (at the time he could have visited, the 2nd version would have been present), a depiction by Teniers of the Temptation of St. Anthony (my research suggests the 1st version would have been the one on display in the museum at the time), and an anonymous portrait of the Investiture of Pope Celestine V. The final painting below, Teniers' St. Anthony and St. Paul in the Desert, is said to be the "correct" Teniers because it shows the saint NOT being tempted. Alas, while Henry Lincoln says it could be found at Shugborough Hall, it has never been in the Louvre.

Incidentally, I admit it remains an unproven assertion that Sauniere ever did visit the Louvre, either in 1892 or 1913. The reason I post these pictures is that, whether or not he ever did visit the museum, the authors of the "prieure documents" are clearly calling attention to them. For whatever reason.



Shepherds of Arcadia - 1620s Shepherds of Arcadia - 1650s



The Notre Dame de Marceille Temptation Temptation of St. Anthony 1



Temptation of St. Anthony 2 1st Temptation of St. Anthony Star?



Portrait of Celestine V Celestine V Star?


 
St. Anthony and St. Paul in the Desert  

Two Geometries in the Poussin?

These constructions are courtesy of John Smout, email address: info@jsmout.u-net.com . Please email any questions or complaints to him, not me. He must take all credit and all blame. John admits, and I cry mea culpa, that these are not high quality images, and we both agree it might be better if we were working with better ones. In any case, examine his efforts, and see if they have any more validity than mine.

The Pentagram in the Poussin

Here John borrows from Christopher Cornford's pentagonal geometry as presented in Henry Lincoln's work. Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

The yellow line indicates overlap between the two geometries.

The Hexagram in the Poussin

And here is the hexagram that he constructed, using the apparent center of the tomb as its center.

Neither John nor I are sure whether this geometry has anything to do with the real world, but I felt the need to present it. John went further to create an 18-point star from the 6-point star -- if you want to see this further construction, you can email him.

Combining the Geometries

Red lines are the pentagram, black the hexagram, blue lines of sight/staves, yellow "control lines". For this diagram, I take all blame or credit, but still must thank John for giving me the inspiration.

Two Geometries in Notre Dame de France?

Yellow lines mark the pentagram Lincoln showed at the end of Holy Place ; red lines another symbol which I think is interesting; blue hints of a hexagonal geometry on the other side centered on the face of Magdalen; and light blue highlighting the black sun and blue rose, the latter being a key Symbolist icon.

The Horse of G-d

I've recently come across a letter by deCherisey where he indicates that he composed the parchment ciphers to refer to Teniers, Poussin, and the Delacroix painting of Heliodorus Driven from the Temple in Saint Sulpice. I consider this a clue whether or not deCherisey really did compose the cipher. (BYEN DE LA CROIX, CHEVAL DE DIEU -- Heliodorus was driven from the Temple by a divine horse.) Here's a thumbnail of this painting (click on it for full-screen):

The Shepherds of Arcadia at Shugborough Hall

Notice that this is an inversion of Poussin's original work, whether deliberately or accidentally.

Please note that I consider this page a "work in progress". The images from which these geometries were generated were of low quality, and possibly off parallax and off scale. I also make no claims of significance about their existence, only that it does appear to suggest something about the design intentions of the artist.