The Last Supper
By: Tasha • Essay • 805 Words • December 10, 2009 • 1,136 Views
Essay title: The Last Supper
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci’s, The Last Supper is a priceless work of art, that has been cherished
over hundreds of years and is still one of the most magnificent pieces of art in the world today. It
has many hidden meaning’s and obvious talent that has been painted upon a wall. It was a very
biblical event in which Jesus and his disciples gathered for one more dinner together. Jesus and
his twelve disciples are seated at a long table that is parallel to the picture plane. On the table
their appears to be plates, platters, and some sort of bread. The room is very large and seems
peaceful, all but the fuss over what Jesus was telling them. Jesus has his arms spread in
disposed trust. The rest of his disciples seem to be in intense and dramatic excitement, with their
hands out in shock and look to be in question at Jesus’ words. The characters in this painting
were created with great individuality. Each one has a different expression on their face but all of
them seem to be confused of what is being said to them, Except for one. The one on the left
from a viewers point of view seems to have a guilty look about him, having his elbow on the
table would seem now to be disrespectful. Now when eating supper parents tell their children its
not polite to eat with your elbows on the table, I wonder if this is where that came from. It also
seems that he has something in his hand and he is looking at Jesus in a way such as he is hoping
that he doesn’t find out what he is hiding. This guy has to be Judas Jesus’ betrayer.
In this painting, I see Jesus telling his disciples that this is The Last Supper they will have
with him and that he is going to sacrifice himself for sins. In the painting Jesus is the main focus.
The room that The Last Supper was held in, is painted as if to bring out Jesus as being the
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center of everything. Da Vinci wanted the focus on Jesus that is why the room is painted in the
layout it is in. All of the lines in this painting converge toward Jesus, and his head is at the
vanishing point, when you look just above Jesus’ head it is as if he has a halo just above his
head. It seems in the painting that all the disciples are in groups of three and the closer they get
to Jesus the more compact they get which again puts the focus on Jesus. This could lead to the
question people have had about who the womanly figure is in the painting. To me it look like
Mother Mary, but some have argued that it is