Are There Crop Circle Designs on the Duomo?
By Matthew Bates
On May 1, 2003 I started a painting of the Campanile di Giotto, the
bell tower of the Duomo, or Cathedral, of Florence, in Italy. The painting
included all of the intricate details that are carved and inlayed in
marble all up the entire length of the tower.Even though I have lived
in Florence for many years, I had never really taken in the incredible
artistic undertaking that the Florentines produced when they built
the tower until I started the painting. I worked about 5 hours a day,
everyday, until on August 31, 2003 I finally finished the painting.
You can imagine the amount of effort that it took to create such a
painting, and at what level of detail I was involved with. Most of
the details of life are lost to us because, well, there are just too
many details all around us. We train ourselves to focus on a few things
at a time so that we can get through the day, in so doing, we miss
some vital clues to what may be going on around us.
Several years ago
I was watching an Italian TV station called La7 which was transmitting
a show about the crop circle phenomenon. Up
until then I had never heard of a crop circle, and during the transmission
I became captivated. I had never seen anything like it and, as an artist,
I could tell that there was some incredible mastery in the designs,
and in the execution of the circles. I knew, instinctively, that whoever
was making these creations had to have some fantastic tools at their
disposal. These were not hoaxes, and although there are hoaxes, there
are definitely real crop circles. Which brings us to question, why
now, why are we receiving these messages and have they ever appeared
before. History has a funny way of popping up when you least expect
it. I think that I have found
crop circle designs right on the top of the Campanile di Giotto, right
there for us to see.
Florence is the
birthplace of the Renaissance.
From the ashes of the Medieval age, Florence was a light where human
accomplishment was a valued prize. Among Florentine firsts we can include
the invention of capitalism through its banks and trade, to the understanding
of our place in the Universe thanks to Galileo, to the invention of
eyeglasses, and the use of the fork at the dinner table. Also modern
political practice was invented by Machiavellian thought, not to mention
that Florence was the first city in the world to have paved streets.
All of this and I didn’t even mention Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
because we all know who they are and what they did! Given all of this
wealth and power, of the spirit, mind and pocket, is it outrageous
to think that crop circles may have appeared to these pioneering men,
as a guide? Certainly there is no record of crop circles, but why would
there be, it would be dangerous at best to advertise such knowledge
when the fear of excommunication was very real, and the other side
of the city wall was a cold place to be.
Here are the pictures that I took myself of the top of the bell tower.
I would have never noticed this myself if I had not painted it. You
can judge for yourselves, and I certainly encourage debate. |
"Campanile di Giotto" by Matthew Bates
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