My renaissance

Cracking the code: who was the greater?

As I crossed the English Channel on the Eurostar, public fever over The Da Vinci Code was at its peak. Right across London, posters, billboards, buses enticed the onlooker to explore the trail. Even the sleek Eurostar sported on its body Da Vinci8217;s enigmatic 8216;Mona Lisa8217; along with strange cryptograms.

While Da Vinci caught the popular imagination, I was busy absorbing another Renaissance master: Michelangelo. The British Museum has a special exhibition on Michelangelo featuring among other exciting works one of his cartoons. With impressions of Michelangelo8217;s fallen angels, the pensive brow of God and the outstretched hand in the creation of Adam swarming in my head, I encountered 8216;Mona Lisa8217; at the Louvre. Hordes of Japanese tourists had descended on the La Jaconda to retrace the footsteps of Dan Brown8217;s Professor Langdon and Sophie Neveu. Seeing me unimpressed by the greatness of the world8217;s most famous painting, a young assistant launched into an explanation of the finer aspects of the work. While she was extolling Da Vinci8217;s genius, Michelangelo continued to leave me wonderstruck!

It was interestingly the overpowering effect of Da Vinci8217;s 8216;Madonna of the Rocks8217; and the incomplete 8216;Adoration of the Magi8217; that changed things. It struck me then that I, too, was on a quest 8212; not of the Holy Grail, but on a more personal one: trying to figure out who was the greater: Leonardo Da Vinci or Michelangelo Buonarroti? Rome came next. I finally set eyes on the frescoes at the Sistine Chapel. Nothing quite prepared me for the sheer magnificence of the ceiling and the elaborate altarpiece with the 8216;Last Judgement8217;. It was his 8216;David8217; which gave me a glimpse into Michelangelo8217;s perfection as a sculptor. But wait. This quest was leaving me with more riddles than answers. What about Da Vinci8217;s sketches of the 8216;Vitruvian Man8217; symbolising the perfect proportions of the human body?

In Florence, braving the serpentine queues at the Galleria Del Accademia was worth it. The museum was holding a special exhibition on Leonardo: 8216;The Mind of A Genius8217;. His self-portrait in red chalk beckoned me to discover more about a man considered far ahead of his times. The arc had been completed. I had started my trail in London with a special exhibition on one artist and stumbled on to the genius of another by the time I concluded it.

Did I crack the code? Who was the greater genius? Experts had concluded that the painter of 8216;Mona Lisa8217; was greater, but I cannot choose between them!