Images
All images are CC.
https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/9ead5ccd-5f36-4b79-9494-63b8a9b83859
https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/5834364a-b07e-4e02-b9c0-fd748dd519ad
Questions inspiring this:
Why did the Impertus need the help of the Order specifically?
Why do they visit every decade?
Why are they denied each time?
Why was Da Vinci creating anomalous artifacts?
How did Da Vinci present such an issue for the Impertus?
What terrible mistake has been made?
What is the terrible cost?
Why has the ancient rituals of the Order lost their potency?
What happened to Da Vinci, not just his artifacts?
Why does the Order call upon the Impertus?
Why are the members of the Order dwindling?
What is the Crypt and why do none enter it?
What are some possible drawbacks to using Mount Vesuvius?
Which of Da Vinci’s creations could be the most dramatic and how?
Explanation
The information in Footnote 6 is the most important info in this article.
There is a long religious history of isolating one’s self from “the world” in order to become more God-attuned (that is to say, less distracted) and focused on one’s medium of divine communion & inspiration. St. John the Hesychast and Da Vinci — both canonical figures in their own fields — are united geographically in the awesome glory and remoteness of Vesuvius, and also spiritually in the example of their Christ’s isolation and suffering in order to be closer to God.
Jesus did this through prayer and sacrifice, St. John did this through asceticism and silence, and Da Vinci through his art and studies. So the two, who it can be assumed were in some sort of spiritual conversation in the Crypt, are “crucified” in Da Vinci’s contraption together, creating a different interpretation of the Vetruvian Man… not a diagram of proportionality but a blueprint for an ultimate spiritual status.
In Da Vinci’s case, his “worship” and its medium happens to be the anomalous, and so he calls them to himself for study and worship deep in the Mountain in order to praise his God. His bright genius that has given so much to the non-anomalous world, has become the opposite to the anomalous one — an unquenchable black hole (or sphere) of curiosity.
