The Last Supper - In Pencil ! - A Study of the Painting It is indeed a wonderful feeling to sketch the genius Leonardo Da Vinci's famous fresco!
The Last Supper depicts the next few seconds in this story after Christ dropped the bombshell that one disciple would betray him before sunrise, and all twelve have reacted to the news with different degrees of horror, anger and shock..
Christ is very much the calm person alone in the midst of the storm.
In the fictional book 'The Da Vinci Code', Daniel Brown has his character Teabing suggest that the figure seated to Jesus' right is not the disciple John but is instead Mary Magdalene. The theory, suggested several times in the past, is that Jesus married Mary and after the crucifixion she had a child by him.
It took three years for leonardo to complete this painting!
He began working on it in 1495, and finished
Last Supper in 1498. This is worth noting, as Leonardo was a known procrastinator with a marked tendency to leave projects unfinished.
a secret visual journey through Leonardo da Vinci's famous Fresco. Where the Grail, Excalibur, Templar Knights, the face of God, and mother and child ..
Secret hidden by Leonardo Da Vinci in his paintings mona lisa and last supper...
The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything - Leonardo..
He is one of the greatest minds in human history. A scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) was a polymath and arguably the main figure of the Renaissance. He set out to learn all there is to know, conceived new ideas and inventions that changed the world, and created artistic works of astonishing elegance and beauty, including the most famous painting in history, the Mona Lisa.
How big is iIt and where is it?
The original painting is huge, really - 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 feet). It covers an entire large wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
The "V"
The „M“ shape that Jesus and 'Mary' form looks more like a „V“,symbol of the Holy Grail.. The pillar behind it looks like a phallus. The pillar is inside the V, signifying procreation.And if we would move the image of the women at the right, Mary would sit with her head rested on Jesus shoulders, in an affectionate gesture!
However on the other hand, if you look carfully at the Leonardo painting, you will notice other disciples who do not have beards or who could be construed as possessing feminine features. However from my work in gender studies, I would caution that gender is a culturally and socially conditioned concept. What you and I accept today as being masculine or feminine is most likely not what would have been accepted in Florence or Milan during the fifteenth century....If you look carefully at Christian art, in particular at the depictions of male and female bodies, faces, and gestures, then the Last Supper is not such an extraordinary presentation?"
Who is where in the painting?
Looking across the picture below from left to right the disciples are shown in four groups of three:
* Bartholomew, James Minor and Andrew form a group of three. All are horrified, Andrew to the point of holding his hands up in a "let's calm down " gesture.
* Judas, Peter and John form the next group of three. Judas has his face in shadow and is clutching a small bag, presumably money. He was quite often portrayed with this in last supper paintings. He is also reaching for bread at the same time as Jesus is. Peter, in the fashion of the time, is shown clutching a knife and, with his hand on John's shoulder, is asking a feminine-looking John "Who does he say it is?". John leans toward him to hear what he says creating a V shape between himself and Jesus which has been interpreted by some as an indication of a marriage between 'Mary' and Jesus.
* Christ is very much the calm person alone in the midst of the debate.
* Thomas, James the Elder and Philip are next. 'Doubting' Thomas is pointing upward, maybe asking for one shred of evidence that this is so. His other hand is on the table between James and Philip as though seeking something solid. James the Elder looks stunned and seems to be watching Jesus' left hand. Philip seems to be asking 'Is it me?'.
* Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon comprise the last group of three figures. Matthew and Thaddeus seem to be asking Simon about Jesus' statement.
Pencil Sketch on Chart 46"x 33"
It's been a long road,plenty of late nights and quiet weekends!
