History Art / TheLastSupper

* RaceLift: Although his appearance is never explicitly described in scripture, it can be assumed from his birthplace that Jesus would be a ethnically Middle Eastern man. Leonardo paints him as a white man with long, brown hair and a beard, looking more like someone you'd meet in Florence than in Nazareth. This was not new in Leonardo's generation, however.

* GeodesicCast: The twelve apostles are separated into four groups of three, who all respond differently to Christ's announcement. James (the Greater), Thomas, and Philip are skeptical. Jude Thaddeus, Matthew, and Simon the Zealot display questioning expressions. Andrew, Bartholomew, and James (the son of Alphaeus) are surprised. John, Judas Iscariot, and Peter can only be grouped by the variety of their reactions and because they play an important role in the events to come: Jonh will become Mary's honorary son, Judas will sell Jesus, and Peter will react aggressively to Jesus' capture.

''The Last Supper'' is a 1498 UsefulNotes/{{Ital|y}}ian [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Renaissance]] {{painting|s}} by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci depicting one of the most famous scenes from ''Literature/TheFourGospels'': the dinner [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus Christ]] had with his followers before being betrayed and killed. The painting depicts Jesus in the center of the table reaching for bread to bless while surrounded by his twelve disciples, who are all in shock upon learning that one among them is a traitor. It is painted on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and Leonardo's experiments with original kinds of paint, not all of which work in fresco, led to the original work not lasting long. Much of what can be seen today is restoration.

''The Last Supper'' is a 1498 UsefulNotes/{{Ital|y}}ian [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Renaissance]] {{painting|s}} by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci depicting one of the most famous scenes from Literature/TheFourGospels: the dinner [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus Christ]] had with his followers before being betrayed and killed. The painting depicts Jesus in the center of the table reaching for bread to bless while surrounded by his twelve disciples, who are all in shock upon learning that one among them is a traitor. It is painted on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and Leonardo's experiments with original kinds of paint, not all of which work in fresco, led to the original work not lasting long. Much of what can be seen today is restoration.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: It would make a lot more sense to have the Apostles sitting on opposite sides of the table, but it's for the best Leonardo da Vinci didn't dedicate his talents to a painting of six peoples' backs covering up what is either Jesus or an Italian hobo.
* AdaptationExpansion: In Literature/TheFourGospels, the individual reaction of the Apostles to the news of a traitor is not described, and neither is the physical appearance of the Apostles or Jesus. In visualizing the event, Leonardo uses the personalities of the Apostles as described elsewhere to extrapolate how he thinks they would react and puts the ideas to paint.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: [[http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/supper.html Allegedly]], Leonardo based the face of Judas off of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Savonarola Savonarola]], an [[TurbulentPriest extremist monk]] famous for his [[BookBurning "Bonfires of the Vanities"]], who was ruling Florence as a proto-puritan dictator at the time.

* DeclarativeFinger: Thomas, the apostle to Jesus's left, is raising his index finger as if to make a point. This could be an indication of his doubt in Jesus's accusation, referencing the doubt Thomas has in Literature/TheFourGospels when the Apostles claim Jesus has risen from the dead.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Thomas is pointing his index finger straight upward while staring directly at Jesus as if to ask why would {{God}} destine one of the Apostles to be a traitor. And why would he give his own sown such a terrible death.

* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: {{Inverted}}. In order to find the appropriate look for Judas, he went to the local prisons and found a man who looked haggard, angry and dangerous and used him as the model. Some years later he still hadn't found the right person to stand in for Jesus. While pondering the question, a man walked into the studio who looked perfect, clean, with kind features. Leonardo immediately chose the man as his inspiration for Jesus. When Leonardo asked the man if they had ever met, the man replied "Yes, I was Judas" [[note]]FridgeBrilliance when you realize that Jesus had to have been pretty average-looking for a 1st-century Judean, otherwise why would the Romans have needed Judas to identify him?[[/note]].

* GeodesicCast: The twelve apostles are separated into four groups of three, who all respond differently to Christ's announcement. James(the Greater), Thomas, and Philip are skeptical. Jude Thaddeus, Matthew, and Simon the Zealot display questioning expressions. Andrew, Bartholomew, and James (the son of Alphaeus) are surprised. John, Judas Iscariot, and Peter can only be grouped by the variety of their reactions and because they play an important role in the events to come: Jonh will become Mary's honorary son, Judas will sell Jesus, and Peter will react aggressively to Jesus' capture.