By Khalida Sarwari
For Caroline Cocciardi, seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was the beginning of a decade-long quest to understand the man behind the painting. Now, at the end of that journey, she wants to share her findings with the Saratoga community, and maybe even beyond.
A lifelong Saratoga resident herself, Cocciardi spent some time in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Italy. It was there, she said, that da Vinci “grabbed” her soul.
“My story is I got bit by the Leonardo passion bug in 1999,” she said. “I was looking for a different Leonardo–not the masterful artist, engineer or draftsman.”
Driven by a desire to learn more about his persona, Cocciardi delved into an extension of da Vinci: his artwork. Though a 1971 trip to the Louvre to see the “Mona Lisa” had left her feeling underwhelmed, Cocciardi took another trip to Paris to study the Renaissance artist’s most famous painting. This time around, she saw something she’d missed the first time, something she claims is an unremarked upon element that isn’t visible to the naked eye: a one inch by four inch interlocking embroidered knot pattern in the form of a series of geometric designs that she says is a mathematical knot.
“He comes from learning about the Greeks, and the Greeks say the highest level of beauty is found in mathematics,” Cocciardi said. “I thought maybe I’d find a love letter someday, but instead the language he spoke was the language of mathematics, and that conveyed his highest sentiments.”
The knot conveys a message of love to one special person, according to Cocciardi.
“It reads like a love poem, what he had to say in that knot,” she said. “He started that pattern 10 years before he ever started a painting. This is a totally original design that he created only for this painting.”
Cocciardi is working on a book on her Mona Lisa knot theory. An interior designer by trade, she switched tracks to writing and film and already has one documentary under her belt, “Mona Lisa Revealed.”
Cocciardi maintains that while she’s not an art expert or scholar, “unbeknownst to me I made a major discovery on the Mona Lisa,” and now she wants to tell as many people as she can about it.
She’ll start with the Saratoga community on Aug. 25, where she’ll give a lecture at the IOOF Lodge 428 at 14414 Oak St. The program is free to the public and begins at 7 p.m.
Link: Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci are the topic of a free Saratoga lecture
