The Art of the Post-Modern Era and the Da Vinci Code

At the very beginning of the twenty-first century, the literary scene all over the world was shaken by the echoes of a best-seller. A novel published in America, the origin of industrial literature, was breaking incredible sales records, reaching millions of copies, and was translated into almost all languages of the world. This book is a novel that internalized all elements of art in the post-modern era in the most professional way and puts the arts of painting and architecture at the center of its viewfinder: It is “The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. All elements that should have a place in a post-modern work of art were carefully spread in The Da Vinci Code. Elements such as conspiracy theory, esotericism, theology, cryptology, popular history, and intrigue, which are among the elements of the most significant interest in the age we live in, were fed into the work in such a taste and dose as if they were applied with the skill of a master cook. While the book proceeded with short and easy-to-read chapters and interruptions that transferred the element of curiosity to the next section, decorated with the techniques of the writers of the media age that excited the readers' excitement, it attracted attention to the architectural spaces and cult works of art that it plateaued itself. Even though Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is its “leitmotif," some significant European cathedrals, the Louvre Museum, and some monumental structures in London and Paris comprise the spaces where the novel takes place. In other words, in the novel, The Da Vinci Code, the art of architecture occupies an extensive space in addition to such branches of plastic art as painting and sculpture. Temple Church, the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, Westminster Abbey, Rosslyn Chapel, the Château de Villette, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and the Louvre Museum are the most important of these. Although Dan Brown's worldwide best-seller is a product of popular literature, it creates an attraction with its theme around monumental structures, architectural works, works of art, legends, myths, and theological parables that are of great importance in the history of humanity and talks about the creations that are essential, encouraging, instructive, developing and inspiring for architects, within the framework of qualified research. Considering this aspect, it is a valuable novel that should be at the center of the attention of architects.