Tag: history

Lenten Reflections #38

I often find myself rattling off the same rule reminders to my students. Some are basic “say please and thank you” prompts, while others are more distinctive: “Shirt on please, your arms need to be inside your sleeves…no spinning on the floor…stop sucking on your shirt…walk in the hallway…”. Today, I even had a kindergarten girl come into class and ask if I would please remind Michael not to use bathroom words because “earlier he kept saying P-O-O”, she spelled it out. Other than the potty talk, most of the kid offenses were about personal space, which, when you are under eight years old, the person sitting next to you, really does have the most exciting space of all.

So, tonight, on Holy Thursday, I stared up at a copy of the famous artwork by Leonardo Da Vinci given to me by my grandmother and noticed the lack of personal space between the apostles. I also wondered why, out of the twelve guys having dinner, not one of them considered sitting on the other side of the table to get a better view of the whole water and wine miracle. This masterpiece also depicts the moments after Christ let his chummy crew KNOW–HE-KNEW that one disciple would betray him before sunrise. Judas is looking pretty nervous.

What I learned:

We all find ourselves in that space sometimes, that skeptical time when trust in ourselves and others circles the drain, and our own Judas creeps stealthily into our world. But Jesus didn’t lose hope, and we shouldn’t either. No matter how tough times can be – jobs lost, retirement a far-off dream, health failing – keep your faith strong, and for goodness’ sake, tell all the Judases in the world to scoot over and mind their own personal space.

INTERESTING FACTS: In my research of The Last Supper, I found a few rare facts about this stellar painting on leonardodavinci.net to share:

1. Leonardo Da Vinci hadn’t worked on such a large painting and had no experience in the standard mural medium of fresco.
2. The spilled salt is symbolic – speculations about symbolism in the artwork are plentiful. For example, many scholars have discussed the meaning of the spilled salt container near Judas’s elbow. Spilled salt could symbolize bad luck, loss, religion, or Jesus as the salt of the earth.
3. Was it eel or herring? Scholars have also remarked on da Vinci’s choice of food. They dispute whether the fish on the table is herring or eel since each carries its own symbolic meaning.
4. Da Vinci used a hammer and nail to help him to achieve a one-point perspective. What makes the masterpiece so striking is the perspective from which it’s painted, which seems to invite the viewer to step right into the dramatic scene. To achieve this illusion, da Vinci hammered a nail into the wall, then tied a string to it to make marks that helped guide his hand in creating the painting’s angles.
5. The existing mural is not da Vinci’s work. At the end of the 20th century, restorer Panin Brambilla Barcilon and his crew relied on microscopic photographs, core samples, infrared reflectoscopy and sonar to remove the added layers of paint and restore the original as accurately as possible. Critics maintain that only a fraction of the painting that exists today is the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Here’s to Another Good Day!

Thanks for joining me,

Lucretia