Da Vinci’s Symbolism On The Last Supper Depicts The End Of The World

This painting is one of the most iconic and referenced in academia and even pop culture. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is a crowning achievement of humanities and arts. Da Vinci turned out to have embedded messages that researchers begin to notice and decipher. One of these messages is said to reveal the date of the End of the World.

Image : Business Insider

Leonardo da Vinci spent 3 years in painting the Last Supper. The quintessential Renaissance man started his work in the painting around 1495 and delivered his final touches on 1498. A year later it is said that the French King and conqueror Louis XII planned to rip the painting and bring it to France as a war loot fortunately his plan did not materialize.

The mural of the Last Supper is known for its stark realism and lifelike characteristics that hold up even up to this day. The figures of Christ and the Apostles are very realistic and full of vibrant colors and shapes that mirror the real world. Each Apostle is seen to be holding objects that are related to their roles in the Gospels.

To start with the symbolism and hidden messages we have to consider the symmetry and visual perspective of the Last Supper. The 1 point linear perspective where Christ is in the center symbolizes the absolute divinity of Jesus Christ. The artistic representations of the Apostles and Mary Magdalene also gave more sense of realism in the painting. The way these Apostles are also set apart with each other fit the 1 point linear perspective.

Image: Daily Mail

In pop culture, the painting also played a huge role in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The painting served as a plot device that leads to the discovery of the alleged Bloodline of Jesus Christ. The film adaptation also met several controversies when it was first released, in the Philippines, for example, the movie was rated R-18 despite being originally released to have a PG-13 rating in the United States.

It seems that there is another hidden message supposedly being decoded or discovered in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. The most recent claim is made by a certain Italian art expert named Sabrina Sforza Galitzia. She believes that the date of the world's end is carefully hidden in the Last Supper as a visual puzzle. 

How did Sabrina Sforza Galitzia believe that the date will happen from March 21, 4006 to November 1 4006? She claimed that the world ending event will happen nearly 2000 years from now according to the illuminations of the sun that serves as an astrological puzzle that Leonardo Da Vinci tried to study for years as seen on Da Vinci's manuscripts stored at University of California. Her claim is still a subject of scrutiny and seen as pseudoscientific.

The Last Supper is one of the most widely reproduced works of art. Some dining rooms or kitchens of well off Christian families even have a replica of The Last Supper. With the image of Jesus Christ at the center, this painting holds a lot of symbolism for even the layman can scrutinize. The influence of this work of art will never cease.

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