Misteries Hidden in “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci

• The old renascence painting brings up new speculations which complete the enigmatic Da Vinci Code
• A replica of the well-known painting is located in the Evangelical Church in Rîsnov(Romania)

„The Last Supper“ of Leonardo da Vinci is the most popular artistic representation of the last supper The Savior had. The great renascent painter managed to catch the dramatic moment in which Jesus announces that one of the apostles will betray him. He is lonely and sad. The genius of Da Vinci not only impresses until today the art lovers, but it also generates interpretations, more or less accurate. Convinced that it hides mysteries still unnoticed, theologians, historians, musicians, IT specialists and writers discovered new messages, symbols and unsolved codes In Da Vinci’s composition . If you want to study them, live, not on Internet or in some kind of scrappy copy, you can admire the surprisingly well-made copy that guards The Evanghelic Church’s shrine in Rîsnov.

Jesus a child, Jesus at the end of the table.

Approaching Easter time (which in Hebrew means holiday commemoration output of Egyptian slavery), Jesus wanted to dine for the last time toegether with His apprentices. He knew already that Iuda sold him and that he only waits the right moment to give him to the Jews leaders. The Last Supper took place in the day of 13 nisan (6 April) of year 30. The scene with Jesus and the 12 apprentices standing at the table was painted by many other various artists. But the most popular is still Da Vinci’s picture, almost 500 years old. Before it, there were many other. Fresco of Domitila Catacomb (Roma) represents Christ surrounded by apostles. The were all standing in front of a round table, dressed in white. Jesus’s face looked like a very young Savior, and the disciples looked like children. Among the mosaics in Ravenna (VI century) there was another “The last supper”. The apostles sat behind Him forming an semicircle. Here, Jesus is mature, with beard. In Orthodox churches, The supper appears in a lot of wooden icons,and in România, at Voronet, we can see a dinner in which Jesus is placed not in the center, but in the sideof the table.

Other dinners, other characters

The dinner in the basilica crypt San Isidoro in Leon, shows us not only the known characters but other apprentices too, like Matia. Iuda receives bread from the hand of Christ,while, with the other hand he grabs a fish from the table, gesture that proves its betrayal. The richest representation of the Sacrament of Communion is Renaissance. Domenico Ghirlandaio, from Florenta, painted in 1480 a dinner in which Judas is accompanied by a cat, symbol of infidelity. In his painting, the dutch painter Dirk Bouts from Louvain (1467)defines the characters without aureoles of the saints, and Iuda is painted with the back. The Last Supper of Juan de Juanes evoked the moment of the consecration of bread by Jesus,and Iuda shows to be ready to leave. In the last centuries, modern artists gave new definitions to the moment of The last Supper . At the basilica Sagrada Familia, The last Supper is sculpted with vigorous forms,of cubic influence. It is the work of J. M. Subirachs. The controversial Dalipainted The Last Supper too (1955),in a futuristic ambiance.

Why Jesus has no legs?

Above the thousands of variants of The Last Supper,Da Vinci’s variant is still the most known,wanted, copied and interpreted. It has 460×880 cm. The mural picture is found in the ex-dining room of the Santa Maria delle Grazie Dominican Church in Milano.It was made in 1495–1498,in tempera and oil on plaster. After a short while, the paint started to fall. Over the centuries, the painting has been restored several times,the results being more like negative, the colors were getting darker. Dominican monks destroyed the lower wall, opening a door right in the middle, thus eliminating the feet of Jesus. The last restauration,started in 1948 and finished at 28 may 1999, renewed the colored pigment milimeter by milimeter. In august 1943, following an aerial bombardment, the room ceiling collapsed, but the painting remained miraculously intact, protected only by a few bags of sand.In 1980,together with the church and the Dominican monastery, Leonardo’s artwork became a UNESCO heritage. It’s visited each 15 minutes by 25 visitors .During a year, the total number of visitors is 320.000, about 3 or 4 times less than the number of requests

Invisible letters

Da Vinci’s Supper is special because for the first time, the characters are painted with the carnal emotions when they heard from Jesus that “One of you shall betray me”. Like Gioconda, many painters tried to reproduce it, but they were not able to match the original genius. The Dinner reached even the industrial production,on mirrors, mouse pads, pillow cases, key holders. It’s used in commercials and cartoons. There is a Canadian band with this name. But, above all, The Last Supper is studied and distorted a lot of ways. Many think that Da Vinci, author of over 600 inventions, would have introduced knowingly, some coded messages. No detail seems to be at chance.The heroes of Dan Brown’s book have a dialogue about “The Last Supper”,reaching conclusions which, if it were true, would undermine the basics of Christianity. Thus, from a while we got the ideea that the character on the right of Jesus, with a feminine face,is Mary Magdalene that The Savior had an intimate relation with. Between them, the line of the shoulders draw an „M“, the initial for Mary. Also between them, there would be an „V“,symbol of the Holy Grail. And if we would move the image of the women at the right, Mary would sit with her head on Jesus, in an affectionate gesture.

A baby at Dinner

A legend says that Leonardo would have used the same man as a model to paint the faces of Jesus and Jude, the two characters being closely resembled. In the book “The Bible Fraud” the Australian Tony Bushby, is talking about the twin brother of Jesus. Some say that in the picture the man wouldn’t be John,or Mary Magdalene, but the brother of Jesus, because of the striking similarity between them.The fact that Jesus would had marriage links with Mary Magdalene seems to sustain the experiment of the Italian Slavisa Pesci too.The IT specialist got the picture in mirror then overrided it with the original picture.It looks like what he obtained gave birth to new ideeas.The ultimate result showed a man holding a baby. There also appears a templier (Da Vinci was part of the Opus Dei Order, according to secret files of the French National Archives). The Image is not well defined, from here coming the charge that the great discovery would be pure speculation. Overlaping the two paintings, Pesci has discovered at the edge of the table an image of Da Vinci himself.

A melodious painting

If it doesn’t hide secret codes, then the painting certainly hides a musical composition. This is the last discovery of the italian composer, Giovanni Maria Pala.He showed that,if we sit the hands of the apostles, Jesus’s hands and the bread on the table on a portable, exactly at the height that they are positioned in the picture, respecting an imaginary line,we would obtain a 40 seconds melody. The notes singed from the right to the left, as Da Vinci used to write, forms a complete full composition, solemn, slow in tempo, emphasizing biblical tragedy scene. Because the apostles were grouped 3, then the music is singed in 3/4,as most of the music of the fifteenth century was singed. But why would Leonardo have hidden this song in the picture and what does it say, nobody knows yet.

Da Vinci Zodiac

A German TV station presented another confusing theory about Da Vinci’s painting. Authors sustain that in „The Last Supper“, in the faces of the apostles the zodiac is hidden. Jesus would be the symbol of the Balance because he has his hands apart. Thomas , tith his finger up, mimes a sting , so he is the Scorpio. George is ready to catch the prey,being the Lion.Philip has his arms turnet to the body, like the Cancer. Mathew is the Sagittarius, but without a bow. Simon Zealot is Aries because he has his finger in the shape of the circle, the symbol of the beginning of the zodiacal year. John is Virgo, Peter is Capricorn because his left hand looks like the head of a goat , Jude has no zodiac, The Taurus is Thaddaeus with his finger rised as bull horns. Andrew symbolises Fishes from the way he holds his hands. The zodiac Gemini is represented by James Alphaeus, the brother of James. Specialists say that because the position of the apostles,almost mathematical, there is no surprise that so many interpretations have appeared , one more foolish than another.

The Dinner at Rîsnov

• The Evanghelical Church in Rîsnov guards two replicas of “The Last Supper”. One is painted in 1500, On the wall at the left of the shrine. It was discovered a few years ago, with the occasion of restoration.Unfortunately, the mural picture is now heavily damaged,being unable to decipher the details of the contemporary works with Da Vinci.But the shrine, built in 1682, is decorated with a clone of the famous work of Da Vinci,painted by Edward Mores in 1929.The church is dedicated to St. Matthew, is the oldest foundation of Bessarabia from Transylvania, was first mentioned in documents in 1394 and has the form of a Roman basilica,it was fortified after the Gothic style

Third Place in the World

• „The Last Supper“ by Leonardo da Vinci is estimated at 510 millions of dollars. The main reason for that has not been sold or stolen so far is that it can not be moved. It is the third most expensive works of art in the world, after the Sistine Chapel (789 millions of dollars) and Gioconda (642 millions of dollars).

→I am sorry if my english has started some misunderstandings, I did my best for this article, even though I have no vocabulary on a lot of the terms used here, Google Translate is probably the one to blame ←