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Da Vinci Code Secrets

The document discusses Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of The Last Supper and presents various theories and interpretations of some of its unusual elements. It notes that the scene is depicted in daylight rather than evening and suggests da Vinci took artistic license. It also hypothesizes that the figure next to Jesus traditionally identified as John may actually depict Mary Magdalene in disguise. Finally, it points out an anomalous disembodied hand holding a knife on the left side of the painting and presents different theories for its meaning.

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Rahul Garg
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68 views4 pages

Da Vinci Code Secrets

The document discusses Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of The Last Supper and presents various theories and interpretations of some of its unusual elements. It notes that the scene is depicted in daylight rather than evening and suggests da Vinci took artistic license. It also hypothesizes that the figure next to Jesus traditionally identified as John may actually depict Mary Magdalene in disguise. Finally, it points out an anomalous disembodied hand holding a knife on the left side of the painting and presents different theories for its meaning.

Uploaded by

Rahul Garg
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Da Vinci Code

The image of the Last Supper that has been most burned into our collective memory isn't of the actual painting by da Vinci, it's of a copy by an unknown artist of the XVI century. The real "Last Supper" is in such bad shape that it's difficult to make out any details. It's gone through many restoration attempts through the centuries, and alot of da Vinci's original brushwork has been obscured by other painters. Recent modern restoration has attempted to remove everything but the original paint, resulting in a rather muddy looking thing:

one of the things that the Gospels all agree on is that the Last Supper took place in the evening. One look at the painting tells you that this isn't set in the evening, it's in the daytime, probably midafternoon. This is one of those places where da Vinci takes artistic license firmly in hand. Another example would be the Mona Lisa, whose left and right backgrounds aren't aligned properly. The interpretation would be up to the viewer, although many people believe it was simply because The Last Supper looked nicer

that

way

(my

paraphrase,

of

course).

who is that beside Jesus? It is "Da Vinci Code"'s contention that the figure on Jesus' right side is a woman, i.e., Mary Magdalene. That book goes on to say that her portrayal as a prostitute is totally false, although unfortunately, the rest of the world hasn't officially been informed. Now, most people will tell you that that effeminate person beside Jesus is actually John the Beloved, who is portrayed in most classical works as having exceedingly feminine features. This actually makes a lot of sense, but it's fun to hypothesize so let's try to imagine this from da Vinci's point ofview. Da Vinci was a very decadent artiste. He was flambuoyantly gay and didn't like the church at all, although he appreciated the large sums of money they would throw his way for works such as these. If he truly wanted to have Magdalene in his Last Supper, how would he do it? If he painted Jesus plus the 12 disciples plus Mary Magdalene together, it would be an outrage. The Church would simply have him remove her or start all over. He had to be able to hide her, but hiding a woman in a portrait shot of 13 bearded men would be a tricky thing to do. John the Beloved would have been exactly what he needed to solve his problem. Since John was always portrayed as an androgynous innocent type, all he had to do was paint Magdalene in his seat. If anyone asked about it, he'd just say it was ol' John, looking pretty as usual. As you can see from the restored painting below, John is looking

exceedinglypretty.

Finally, there is a hidden detail in the painting that doesn't make sense. You will probably not be able to spot from the picture I have above, but you can try looking for it in this full-size image. It's very small and is over on the left side of thepainting. ...Giveup?

There's a hand holding a knife, and it doesn't belong to any of the people sitting there. It's completely disembodied; you can see from the color of its sleeve that it's not connected to anyone's shoulder. One of the interpretations is that it symbolizes the Church's power and ability to control art and literature at the time. Another is that it belongs to Peter, who (in the future) will use that same knife to cut off the ear of one of the guards at the Garden of Gethesemane.

This is just the tip of the iceberg ... Brown's book goes on to point out all sorts of interesting facts about the history of the Church, including why we celebrate Jesus' Birthday on the same day as many pagan gods' (the 25th of December is apparently a very busy day), and why Magdalene was portrayed as history's most famous whore.

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