Published:January 1st, 2012 18:48 EST

I only managed to see the last 30 minutes of a Planet Green HD special, The DaVinci Shroud, but I did think to hit the DVR record button on my Time Warner Cable remote, which seems to be in the palm of my hand perpetually. With second and third viewings of these last thirty minutes, and with the jotting down of some fastidious notes, I was able to experience, or rather able to fathom the possibility that Leonardo DaVinci was the artist behind the Shroud of Turin.

I`m not yet completely convinced that this is correct, but I sure saw some strong arguments put forth that successfully persuade you (or me) that Leonardo had the skills and cunning necessary to pull this sort of high-tech hoax or scam off, without a hitch. This leads me to the question of whether maybe Leonardo had some kind of grudge, either against Christianity, or more specifically, against the Catholic Church as it was represented in Italy in the early 16th century.

This would entail quite a bit of research, but would be an interesting tangential subject for  `Shroud of Turin Aficionados.` I don`t think it`s my cup of tea; I`m a member of the amateur camp of Shroud devotees. I realize this, so I humbly pursued some preliminary Shroud research this afternoon, that naturally led me to the Wikipedia entry, which has very good notes and links to other scholarly Shroud papers and writings, but which are far too numerous to even mention here.

The history of the Shroud itself is interesting enough to garner your attention for a good part of your day (today is New Years day; an appropriate one to spend with the enigmatic Shroud). I should mention a few of these experts who were included in the Planet Green special. These experts all support the theory that Leonardo was the creator of the Shroud, and when put together, they tend to gang up on you and convince you of this veracity. The Shroud is but another lost (and found) masterpiece of the Italian genius (the Salvatore Mundi is yet another).

Dr. Emily Craig points out that the arms are too long on the Shroud figurine, as well as the fingers (being too long). Why this is so wasn`t explained (unless I didn`t catch it). Next was Dr. Nicholas Allen, who has simulated what DaVinci may have done to create the Shroud. Leonardo must have hung a crucified cadaver up in front of a linen, soaked in silver sulfite, then let light stream in through a hole (the Camera Obscura, I believe), which then burns the image onto the cloth. 

Nicholas Allen successfully completed this experiment, which takes three days to scorch this negative image into the cloth. If you photograph the Shroud you`ll get a detailed positive image. (Secondo Pia`s photograph of May 28, 1898 first revealed this startling positive.)This is fairly good proof that the Shroud was produced in just this fashion. Drawings and writings of the Camera Obscura can be found in Leonardo`s notebooks, which is more pithy circumstantial evidence of this `first photograph hypothesis.` 

I need to mention Lynn Picknett also in this  `first photograph` regard. Her controversial book, Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth Behind the Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence (Clive Prince is her co-author) concurs with Nicholas Allen`s conclusion that the image was created through a primitive genesis of photography, to produce the `fraud of the millennium.` Another interesting fact I just learned today (which tends to undermine what little I already know about the history of photography), is that the Camera Obscura has been around since 400 B.C.

Finally, and what is probably the most convincing evidence for DaVinci as the creator of the Shroud, is provided by Lilian Schwartz. First, she was able to prove in 1987 that the Mona Lisa is actually a clever disguise of Leonardo`s self-portrait. From another self-portrait of Leonardo, which was a proportions study, Lilian was able to match it to the facial image of the Shroud. A perfect match (nearly)! This was the icing on the cake.

Leonardo was just like the CIA pasting a head of Oswald on the torso of an obscure stand-in agent, posing with the rifle on Neely Street in Dallas (otherwise known as the infamous Backyard Photos). DaVinci may have been a member of a Secret Society who had a beef against the Catholic Church and put him up to it, possibly for a sizable purse in payment. Or we could just forget the whole ball of wax! The Shroud transcends a scientific explanation, unless? Or where`s Dan Brown when you need him?