The Last Supper

[lswote]

I found this story I am quoting below, concerning DaVinci’s painting of The Last Supper and I wonder if anybody knows if it is true or just an Urban Legend?

The story behind the painting of the Last Supper is extremely interesting and instructive. Two incidents connected with this painting afford a most convincing lesson on the effects of thought in the life of a boy or girl, or of a man or woman. The Last Supper was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, a noted Italian artist. The time engaged for its completion was seven years.

The figures representing the twelve apostles and Christ himself were painted from living persons. The live model for the painting of the figure of Jesus was chosen first. When it was decided that Da Vinci would paint this great picture, hundreds and hundreds of young men were carefully viewed in an endeavor to find a face and personality completely devoid of dissipation caused by sin. Finally, after weeks of laborious searching, a young man, nineteen years of age, was selected as the model for the portrayal of Christ. For six months Da Vinci worked on the production of this leading character of the famous painting.

During the next six years Da Vinci continued his labors on his sublime work of art. One by one, fitting persons were chosen to represent each of the eleven apostles, space being left for the painting of the figure representing Judas Iscariot as the final task of this Masterpiece. This was the apostle, you remember, who betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

For weeks Da Vinci searched for a man with a hard callous face, with a countenance marked by scars of avarice, deceit, who would betray his best friend. After many discouraging experiences in searching for the type of person required to represent Judas, word came to Da Vinci that a man whose appearance fully met the requirements had been found. He was in a dungeon in Rome, sentenced to die for a life of crime and murder. Da Vinci made the trip to Rome at once, and this man was brought out from his imprisonment in the dungeon and led out into the light of the sun. There Da Vinci saw before him a dark, swarthy man, his long shaggy and unkempt hair sprawled over his face. A face which portrayed a character of viciousness and complete ruin. At last the painter had found a person he wanted to represent the character of Judas in his painting. By special permission from the king, this prisoner was carried to Milan where the fresco was being painted. For six months the prisoner sat before Da Vinci, at appointed hours each day, as the gifted artist diligently continued his task of transmitting to his painting this base character in the picture representing the traitor and betrayer of the Savior.

As Da Vinci finished his last stroke of the brush, he turned to the guards and said, “I have finished, you may take the prisoner away.” The prisoner suddenly broke loose from their control and rushed up to Da Vinci, crying as he did so; “Oh, Da Vinci, look at me! Do you not know who I am?”

Da Vinci, with the trained eyes of a great character student, carefully scrutinized the man upon whose face he had constantly gazed for six months and replied, “No, I have never seen you in my life until you were brought before me out of the dungeon in Rome.”

Then, lifting his eyes toward heaven, the prisoner said, “O God, have I fallen so low?” Then turning to the painter he cried, “Leonardo Da Vinci, look at me again, for I am the same man you painted just seven years ago as the figure of Christ!”

This true story of the painting of the Last Supper teaches so strongly the lesson of the effects of right and wrong thinking of an individual. Here was a young man whose character was so pure and unspoiled by the sins of the world, that he represented a countenance and innocence and beauty fit to be used for the painting of a representation of Christ. But during the next seven years, following a life of sin and crime, he was changed into a perfect picture of the most notorious character ever known in the history of the world.

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In this world, you must be oh-so smart, or oh-so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.

[capybara]

Official input from a Renaissance art history PhD student:
“Aieeeeee!”
I think we have seen this one before (I think it’s in archives somewhere). Vasari (the first real biographer of many of these artists, around 1550), though, has a less pat explanation (and maybe funnier) saying that L. used the Prior who was all over his ass to get the work done as the model for Judas (while the head of Christ was the LAST to be painted and, according to V., remained unfinished, which is hard to argue for or against considering the fresco’s condition, which was deteriorating even before he finished it). The e-mailed story sounds like one of those melodramatic, vaguely moralizing UL stories that make their way around. My diagnosis: maudlin B.S.

[system]

Smells more like Reader’s Digest to me.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

[Kat]

Here’s the previous discussion: Inspirational Story or Bunkum? I was unable to find anything about the story on snopes, btw, but someone else may have better luck, if they want to try.

[handy]

If you look closely, you can see french table lighters on the table.

[Eve]

Ha—that was the plot of a Theda Bara movie! I think it was “The Devil’s Daughter” (1915), but I don’t have my book at hand. But I recall the plot: Theda played a sweet young woman who is hired by a degenerate Greenwich Village bohemian to pose for his painting of the Virgin Mary. He Defiles her, and she goes “the way of all flesh.” A few years later, he unknowingly hires the same abandoned wretch to pose for a painting of the Magdalene.

I’m so glad Theda has played a part in a new Urban Legend!

[J_String]

Did a brief search at work this afternoon (I love working in a library). The only source I was able to come up with regarding Leonardo’s models for the painting said that Christ was the only figure for which a real person was not used as a model.

[Dragwyr]

Originally posted by J String:
Did a brief search at work this afternoon (I love working in a library). The only source I was able to come up with regarding Leonardo’s models for the painting said that Christ was the only figure for which a real person was not used as a model.

Well, there you go, then.

I always thought it was a picture of the Penultimate Supper that was just altered to have 12 desciples and 1 Christ (No Kangaroos, no Cabaret, no Mariachi Bands, etc.) :^)

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-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

[capybara]

Ok, speaking of the Monty Python sketch-- there was actually an instance where Veronese was called before the inquisition in 1573 to explain a Last Supper he had painted. I don’t have the transcript of the inquest at home, but it goes something like,

“So, Veronese, what’s with the group of German halberdiers?”
“Well, they could have been at a household as large as Simeons. He was rich and it might have been a big meal. The composition needed soem embellishment…”
“What about the dwarf, and the dogs, and the guy with the blood-stained handkerchief…”
“Well, uh…”
" And the guy cleaning his teeth with a fork? And how about the inclusion of Simeon instead of the Magdalen?"
“I didn’t think a Magdalene would look good there.”

In the end he claims “artistic licence” and unwilling to change the painting he just retitles it “Feast in the House of Levi.” True story.

[dpr]

What did Jesus say at the Last Supper?

OK, anyone who wants to be in the painting, get this side of the table.