Week 7 Session 1

First of all, I want to say that what made me interested in this painting is the
great novel called THE DA VINCI CODE, I recommended it to you all.

The Last Supper or L'Ultima Cena is a late 15th-century aesthetically pleasing
mural painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci housed by the refectory of the
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. It is one of the Western
world's most recognizable paintings.
The work is assumed to have been started around 1495–96 and was commissioned
as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by
Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. The painting represents the
scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of
John, Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve
Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.
Leonardo, as a painter, favored oil painting, a medium which allows the artist to
work slowly and make changes with ease. Leonardo also sought a greater
luminosity and intensity of light and shade, Leonardo painted The Last Supper on a
wall sealed with a double layer of gesso, pitch, and mastic. Then, borrowing from
panel painting, he added an undercoat of white lead to enhance the brightness of
the oil and tempera that was applied on top.
In common with other depictions of the Last Supper from this period, Leonardo
seats the diners on one side of the table, so that none of them has his back to the
viewer. Most previous depictions excluded Judas by placing him alone on the
opposite side of the table from the other eleven disciples and Jesus, or placing
halos around all the disciples except Judas. Leonardo instead has Judas lean back
into shadow. Jesus is predicting that his betrayer will take the bread at the same
time he does to Thomas and James the Greater to his left, who react in horror as
Jesus points with his left hand to a piece of bread before them. The angles and
lighting draw attention to Jesus, who’s turned right cheek is located at the
vanishing point for all perspective lines. In addition, the painting demonstrated Da
Vinci's masterful use of perspective as it "draws our attention to the face of Christ
at the center of the composition, and Christ's face, through his down-turned gaze,
directs our focus along the diagonal of his left arm to his hand and therefore, the
bread.
The Last Supper has been the target of much speculation by writers and historical
revisionists alike, usually centered on purported hidden messages or hints found
within the painting, especially since the publication of Dan Brown's novel The Da
Vinci Code (2003), in which one of the characters suggests that the person to Jesus'
right (left of Jesus from the viewer's perspective) is actually Mary Magdalene. Art
historians hold that the figure is the Apostle John, who only appears feminine due
to Leonardo's characteristic fascination with blurring the lines between the sexes, a
quality which is found in his other paintings, such as St. John the Baptist.
According to Ross King, an expert on Italian art, Mary Magdalene's appearance at
the last supper would not have been controversial and Leonardo would have had no
motive to disguise her as one of the other disciples, since she was widely venerated
in her role as the "Apostle to the Apostles" and was the patron of the Dominican
Order, for whom The Last Supper was painted.
The painting contains several possible numerical references, including to the

number three. The Apostles are seated in groups of three, there are three windows
behind Jesus, and the shape of Jesus' figure resembles a triangle. His hands are
located at the golden ratio of half the height of the composition. The painting can
also be interpreted using the Fibonacci series: one table, one central figure, two
side walls, three windows and figures grouped in threes, five groups of figures,
eight panels on the walls and eight table legs, and thirteen individual figures.

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Week 7 Session 1

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First of all, I want to say that what made me interested in this painting is the

great novel called THE DA VINCI CODE, I recommended it to you all.

The painting contains several possible numerical references, including to the

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