Post by Verminda Spirit on Mar 21, 2007 20:48:16 GMT
A painter fascinated with best-selling conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code committed suicide after becoming convinced she was the subject of a real-life murder plot.
Caroline Eldridge, 38, moved to Italy to pursue her interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, but her mind became "muddled" by the mysteries surrounding his work, her father said.Caroline Eldridge, a Da Vinci scholar and artist, who killed herself after becoming obsessed with the mysteries surrounding the artist and the best-selling novel The Da Vinci CodeShe suffered paranoid delusions that she and her family were in danger "because of the knowledge that she had" of Leonardo after working on an exhibition about his paintings.After repeatedly telling her family, "I'm not going to let them take me alive," she took an overdose of paracetamol.The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 60 million copies, centres on a sinister plot by Catholic organisation Opus Dei to kill the book's hero Robert Langdon before he discovers, via clues in Da Vinci's paintings, that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and had a son.Her parents believe her mind became muddledOn Friday Caroline's father, retired headmaster Roger Eldridge, said: "She was particularly interested in Da Vinci's interpretation of perspective, and because of that interest she had read The Da Vinci Code.
"The nature of the illness that she had would create fear, and the Code itself, I think it did create a muddle in her mind in terms of fears."She was very fearful for her own safety and she felt that because of the work she had been doing and because of the knowledge that she had, she had put us in danger."She had put herself under tremendous pressure with work and I think that pressure and stress was to blame for the paranoia."Ms Elridge, a graduate of the Wimbledon College of Art, worked for years as a costume designer for the English National Opera on productions including The Magic Flute and Medea, and later went freelance.But her passion in life was painting, and during a trip to Venice to stay with a friend in 2004 she got a job working on a six-month exhibition about Leonardo. One of the visitors was Professor Rocco Sinisgalli, a Renaissance art specialist from the University of Rome, who struck up a conversation with Caroline and asked her if she could help him translate a book he was writing about the artist Leone Battista Alberti.
Source: This is London
Caroline Eldridge, 38, moved to Italy to pursue her interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, but her mind became "muddled" by the mysteries surrounding his work, her father said.Caroline Eldridge, a Da Vinci scholar and artist, who killed herself after becoming obsessed with the mysteries surrounding the artist and the best-selling novel The Da Vinci CodeShe suffered paranoid delusions that she and her family were in danger "because of the knowledge that she had" of Leonardo after working on an exhibition about his paintings.After repeatedly telling her family, "I'm not going to let them take me alive," she took an overdose of paracetamol.The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 60 million copies, centres on a sinister plot by Catholic organisation Opus Dei to kill the book's hero Robert Langdon before he discovers, via clues in Da Vinci's paintings, that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and had a son.Her parents believe her mind became muddledOn Friday Caroline's father, retired headmaster Roger Eldridge, said: "She was particularly interested in Da Vinci's interpretation of perspective, and because of that interest she had read The Da Vinci Code.
"The nature of the illness that she had would create fear, and the Code itself, I think it did create a muddle in her mind in terms of fears."She was very fearful for her own safety and she felt that because of the work she had been doing and because of the knowledge that she had, she had put us in danger."She had put herself under tremendous pressure with work and I think that pressure and stress was to blame for the paranoia."Ms Elridge, a graduate of the Wimbledon College of Art, worked for years as a costume designer for the English National Opera on productions including The Magic Flute and Medea, and later went freelance.But her passion in life was painting, and during a trip to Venice to stay with a friend in 2004 she got a job working on a six-month exhibition about Leonardo. One of the visitors was Professor Rocco Sinisgalli, a Renaissance art specialist from the University of Rome, who struck up a conversation with Caroline and asked her if she could help him translate a book he was writing about the artist Leone Battista Alberti.
Source: This is London