MM LI
Nico Franz
1981 Cottbus, DE
Wortfeld cardinalis

Nico Franz

1981 Cottbus, DE

Word Field Cardinalis (Votive Tablet of Belshazzar), 2026

CSS and SVG filters on HTML and pixels on Canvas

Nineteen (500 years)
Corona

And lo! and lo! on the white wall 
There came forth what seemed a human hand 
And wrote, and wrote on the white wall 
Letters of fire, and wrote and vanished

Heinrich Heine Belshazzar, 1820

Word Field Cardinalis

Votive Tablet of Belshazzar, 2026

Word Field Cardinalis is a copistic painting created in 2026 by Nico Franz. It depicts a museum landscape featuring a dominant, large-scale binary image in the right half of the composition. This binary image refers to a well-known drawing by Leonardo da Vinci ("A Man Tricked by Gypsies", c. 1500). The unique characteristic of the binary image lies in the fact that it consists of randomly selected words, in which the black-highlighted letters "A" and "a" form the face from Leonardo's drawing.

Technique, Composition, and Perspective

The painting utilizes web technologies to generate space, color, and structure (HTML, CSS, SVG filters, JavaScript, and WebGL). Individual visual elements are subject to the concept of "constrained randomness"—meaning that within a defined framework, they are randomly generated, positioned, or colored. The work is based on a strictly geometric construction system of classical-antique proportions, which is particularly evident in the division of the image zones.

The painting was proportionally divided into five image zones (black lines). The left half of the image shows the four floors of the building, which are equal in height. A staircase serves as a bridge to the right half of the image containing the main motif: an oversized text tablet in which individual letters have been highlighted to appear as a binary image
When the image space is rotated slightly, it becomes clear that the painting plays with perspective. The wooden staircase does not end at the same height as the parquet of the right-hand room, and between the wall tablet and the decorative stairs in front of it lies an insurmountable abyss
A pyramid is visible on the horizon. Seven contrails can be seen in the sky. A wintry mist encircles the building
The top floor features a decorative skylight through which a beam of light enters the room and is reflected. On the dark wall is an outline figure in the Egyptian style. On the left side, behind a glass wall, stands a sculpture made of stacked cuboids of classical proportions, whose dimensions refer to biblical sanctuaries
The middle floor can only be seen from the outside. It features a massive concrete structure with a cubic block integrated into the right side, which has clearly been subjected to severe mechanical stress. Below it are the shadows of an old path marker (MM) and a sign for an escape route. In the left area, circular shadows of previously attached elements are visible, as well as line markings applied by craftsmen. Presumably, the central light was intended to be supplemented by two additional smaller ones
The basement level of the museum features a space decorated in the style of a desert landscape at night. It displays 19 blocks, each consisting of six cubic stones. The proportion and position of the twelve blocks on the far left are determined randomly, with one exhibiting a noticeably different form than the others. The three blocks on the far right never change their shape. The four in between follow the predetermined patterns ABAA or AABA, and BABB or BBAB, respectively. The dark night sky in the background shows a partially obscured moon and 97 stars
The dimensions of the cuboids are not chosen at random. They are scale reproductions of the exterior proportions of the structures mentioned in the Bible. From bottom to top: Noah's Ark (5:3:30), the Tabernacle of Moses (1:1:3), Solomon's Temple (2:3:6), and finally the Holy of Holies (1:1:1, represented here in the proportion of the Tabernacle, which it occupied by one-third). At the opposite end of the Ark, scale reproductions show the exterior proportions of the ceremonial objects mentioned in the Bible (the Altar of Burnt Offering—for both Solomon's Temple and the Tabernacle—the Table of Showbread, and the Ark of the Covenant)
It is noteworthy that the Roman letters M M L I correspond to the traditional initial letters of the Gospels in their Latin spelling (Matthaeus, Marcus, Lucas, Iohannes). That this reference is intentional is made clear by the fact that the ratio of the diameters of the four circles to the left of the letters corresponds to the ratio of the word counts of the Gospels (approximately 18,300 (Mt), 11,300 (Mk), 19,500 (Lk), and 15,600 (Joh), depending on the translation)
One of the blocks is randomly positioned upright. Its proportions of 1:6 stones correspond to those of Noah's Ark standing on end (1 wide and 6 long). In total, 114 stones form 19 blocks of six stones each

The Word Field

The word field is the primary element of the painting. The term refers to the method of word field analysis commonly used in linguistics. In this process, words are grouped according to their semantic relationship to determine the information type and information content of a text.

A Man Tricked by Gypsies (detail), c. 1500, Leonardo da Vinci (RCIN 912495)
This well-known drawing by Leonardo served as the template for the shape of the face
Word Field Cardinalis (detail), Nico Franz, 2026
Leonardo's drawing was programmatically converted into a binary image. The matrix consists of 90 columns and 113 rows. It is randomly filled with words from a list of approximately 160 words
Words containing the letters "A" or "a" are placed in such a way that they recreate the face from Leonardo's drawing. "A" and "a" are highlighted in black. Gaps are formed by words that do not contain the letter "A". Even though the words are always inserted randomly, the word field consistently begins in the upper left with: "Und als ich mich daran erinnerte, wie ich durch die Wortfelder streifte, da kamen mir diese Worte in den Sinn" (And as I remembered how I roamed through the word fields, these words came to my mind)

The Figures

The group of figures in the right half of the image consists of bluish-shimmering silhouettes whose structure and contour appear to be dissolved (or newly reassembled). Originally, these are AI-generated photos of male individuals, created according to strict specifications regarding their poses. They were then programmatically converted into silhouettes (a special form of a binary image). Upon loading the painting, these silhouettes are read, programmatically decomposed into pixels, colored in random shades of blue, and assigned random transparency, only to be reassembled into that blue-transcendently shimmering appearance. The hall in which the group stands—with its characteristic staircase—recalls the Sistine Chapel, where the cardinals elect their Pope under the powerful impression of Michelangelo’s mural, “The Last Judgment.” The external proportions of the Sistine Chapel itself correspond to the biblical specifications for Solomon’s Temple.

A stroller in a suit with sunglasses
A man in shorts catching his breath after an exertion
A man in contemplation
A child touching their mother's hand
The transcendent, blue-shimmering figures are located in a room modeled after the Sistine Chapel. The sculpture in the background on the right is composed of four classical geometric primitives: cylinder, sphere, cube, and pyramid

This work, my friends, is reason and wisdom

Nico Franz