WTF is an Art Historian?

Most people, including artists, think that being an art historian is researching who painted a picture when and with what. This is true, but only a small part of it.

The main bulk of research for a good art historian is the inspirations and agendas that urged the artist to express in art.  Through this study, art historians often find alternative versions to world history and the Bible. Alternative to what is  taught by most educational institutions, popular movies, television, and news media.

This painting looks like the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus?

The truth is much more interesting and complicated. It can take many years to find the truth, because over centuries of many wars over many different political and religious agendas, much of the true information has been lost, diluted, or taken underground.  Some of this alternate history is so different that most art historians keep it to themselves or join a secret society to have someone to talk to about it.  This painting is a an example. <<<




But... if we zoom in we find at her feet, where her queenly royal robe peeks out, are Mary Magdalene's Jar and a crown with the Fleur de Lis.  >>> This painting is saying that the woman being venerated as a matriarch, a mother of great dynasties, is Mary Magdalene.  The peacock, a symbol of Jesus, sits on top of the ruins with his beak pointing to the arch, a symbol for one of his sons, while watching it all happen.

Visual art is a language of allegory. My father often said "A picture tells a thousand words." If we do the study we find out this is true in a lot more ways than the obvious.

Ordinary decorations on the backs of chairs become Mary Magdalene's jar. A peacock feather on Krishna's head becomes an avatar of Jesus Christ. A decorative urn becomes a sign post for a Holy Royal bloodline. An arch becomes the church co-founded by the the son of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.  The decorations on one building can tell an epic.

While Da Vinci Code geeks are still stuck trying to find Sarah Damaris, daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene using the Hebrew Bible and Aramaic, art historians have located their whole brood in non Hebrew sources.

Note:  I have discussed this with friends who are Jewish and this is not a problem for them.  Orthodox Rabbis don't believe in Jesus as a God, they only say that he was an Egyptian magician and royal upstart.

"Royal" is a key word in coded art history research. I have so far found that many artists using coded allegory, even architects, have noble ancestry. Which all brings up the question - what if the true history of world is not written in words, but in pictures?  What if Hollywood has brainwashed itself to tell us the false version?


All types of writing are forms of drawing. If you can write words with a pen or pencil or brush or fingers, you can draw pictures.  

The reason that Catholic churches are so ornately decorated is for people who can't read words to be able to see the stories from the Bible. But the modern Bible is very different from the original Greek Bibles.

 The original Bible was written in Greek, not Hebrew, or Aramaic. That is why modern scholars trying to find the truth keep running into dead ends. The Bible, we are told, is a true story.


True stories don't have dead ends. 

The column of flora and symbols above is actually a Jesse Tree, a visual representation of the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. They were originally designed for people who cannot read words. Plus stone lasts a lot longer than flimsy paper.  The wheat at the bottom is another symbol for Jesus. The ornate Corinthian column head is a symbol of Sarah Phoebe Damaris, one of three daughters of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Most people who know these alternate versions of history belong to secret societies and have signed confidentiality agreements not to tell.  I work with secret societies as part of my research, but have never signed any such agreement. I also have written permission to publish what I have been told.

The problem with written words is that they are very limited restrictive in the amount of information they communicate.  Written words require a couple of days or weeks part time reading for the history of one person and their ancestry.   Where as a coded picture or coded building can tell the same story in a couple of hours or minutes of study, depending on visual code literacy.

Want to see my work in action, come on the tour, Holy Grail in San Francisco, only 10 people per tour, only 3 tours. Maybe more if we sell out.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holy-grail-in-san-francisco-tickets-27530142397

Or you can buy the book Coded Haight Ashbury at http://codedhaightashbury.com 

Original Text and Photos by D.A. Hodgson, San Francisco 2016.

Photos: 

1. D.A. Hodgson at her home in Haight Ashbury. 1 photo
2. Old Master art work at the Legion of Honor Museum. Building and part of the collection donated by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. 2 photos
3. Masonic inspired building by architect Francis Dunn, Scottish Mason. (Note: color scheme is a modern addition, unknown) 2 photos
4. St Mary's Abbey beside Ignatius Church, building commissioned by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. 2 photos