Leonardo da Vinci was not the first artist to attempt to capture the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ as depicted in the canonical gospels of the Hebrew Brit Hadasha or New Testament (books of Jewish apostles Matthew (Mathias, Mattathias), Mark (Marcus), Luke (Lucas), and John (Yohannan, Yochanan, Johanan).
According to the book Last Supper published in year 2000 by Phaidon Press, there are over fifty versions of paintings on this topic dating back to the year 1000 A.D. While it is considered to be the most important and compelling meal in history, and da VInci's work is one of the most famous artistic representations of it, it is possibly not the most historically accurate.
Center For Judaic Christian Studies Investigates
Marvin Wilson, Ockenga Professor of Biblical Studies and Chairman of the Department of Biblical Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, interviewed by Dwight Prior, President of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies in Austin Texas, discussed the Last Supper from the perspective of Jewish historicity (Jewish Background to Paul and the New Testament, Tape 3, Essential Studies – An Introduction; Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1985.)
Referencing the Last Supper painting that most people are familiar with, Professor Wilson indicated that it could not be considered historically accurate for at least one important reason: that is, according to rabbis, the meal, in reality, was not a banquet at all, nor did it take place in a glamorous building, or even at a table with chairs.
Passover Seder In the Time of Jesus
The "Last Supper" was actually the simple Passover meal that would have been held to celebrate the traditional commemoration of the Jewish people being freed from their captivity in Egypt. The location, rather than a palatial hall with pillars as shown by da Vinci, was described in the Bible as just ‘an upper room’, possibly a room just large enough for the twelve apostles and Jesus to relax together and eat a small meal with bread and wine. All of them would have likely been lounging on couches, floor coverings, or pillows on the floor, not sitting on chairs at a table.
The reason for this, Prof. Wilson says, is that “lounging is the posture of a free person, and is done in celebration of being free people”. He continued that tractate Pesachim from the Pesach section of the Talmud explains that the Passover was “a corporate re-living, as if each one there, himself, was experiencing being delivered from Egypt." Thus the Passover Seder Jesus and His apostles were celebrating was an “enactment of coming out of Egypt. And one of the prime virtues of Judaism is to celebrate freedom and deliverance.”
Factual Representation Requires Data
Further, the artistic license used by da Vinci to portray the specific menu and portion sizes also may not have been accurate. This event, chronicled in all four gospels, told of the evening before Christ was betrayed when the disciples were gathered with Him to eat the Passover meal. And as they ate, Jesus told them what was going to happen, and explained explicitly how to commemorate Him in this way after He was crucified. This was actually also the first Communion.
Little is said in the Bible regarding the actual meal, but the focus instead is on the bread and wine that Jesus indicated should thereafter be ‘taken in memory of Him’, thus an artist would have had to guess at the actual food items. Numerous other artists depicting the Last Supper have shown a different variety of foods on the table than da Vinci’s, from lamb, fish, and eel (and in 7% of the other paintings analyzed, even pork, a non-kosher food), to greens and citrus slices.
Interpretive Art
This is not to say that da Vinci was wrong, but since his work, like most others, was interpretive art rather than an actual historical rendering, it should not be assumed that the figures, clothing, postures, furniture, or food shown in his painting had been researched to be accurate to the times. Other examples of interpretive art also have art imitating life, in that each of the numerous representations from 1000 AD to more recent Last Supper paintings show both the size of the plates as well as the portions they contain growing to match portion sizes common at the time the rendering was created.
Lastly, the human subjects were most certainly middle eastern men, and with few exceptions, manual laborers such as fishermen, so their complexion and facial features would have been swarthy, likely bearded, and probably rugged, looking nothing like the delicate men in da Vinci’s portrayal.
References:
Bible-History.co; Bible Names
Essential Studies - An Introduction; [6 tapes - 1985] Dwight Prior, Center for Judaic Christian Studies, Austin,Texas
SuperSize Me; Steve Connor, Science Editor. The Independent – Science (UK); Mar 24, 2010 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/super-size-me-how-the-last-supper-became-a-banquet-over-1000-years-1926159.html
Marie Thomas - Marie Thomas (RieT) is an author in multiple genres, with 18 years in technical writing, and freelance work in science, biographical, and ...
