The Last Supper and it’s clues!
It is claimed in the novel that Leonardo da Vinci included cryptic
messages in his paintings and designs and that these included
celebrations of the sacred feminine.
1. Is this evidence for Peter’s rivalry with Mary Magdalene? Peter’s
hand is slicing through the air in what appears to be a menacing
fashion. Metaphorically, Da Vinci might be intending to comment on the
struggle that took place to control Jesus’s religious movement after his
death. There is some evidence in the Nag Hammadi codices to suggest
that Peter was jealous of Mary’s important role in the continuance of
Jesus’s mission. 2. According to The Da Vinci Code, as well as some
other sources, the letter ‘M’ represents either Mary Magdalene or
‘matrimony’ (from the Latin matrimonium), or both. 3. Is the figure on
Jesus’s right really the apostle John… or is it a woman? Was placing
this Mary Magdalene figure on Jesus’s right – the most important
position in relation to the figure of Jesus - Leonardo’s vision of where
she ought to have been? 4. Note the disembodied hand hanging in the
air. Does this have a symbolic meaning? Is it an image, for instance, of
Peter’s real feelings towards Mary Magdalene? 5. Note that the clothing
worn by Jesus and Mary are mirror images in terms of the red and blue
fabrics. 6. The 90-degree angle that can be drawn between Jesus and
Mary Magdalene suggests a ‘V’. In The Da Vinci Code, as well as in
several non-fiction sources, this is the archetypal symbol for the
vagina, chalice, womb and female sexuality. 7. Note that there is no
central chalice at the table, although people often do not notice that
the famous cup of the Grail story is missing. In the painting,
each figure has a cup of his own. It is jokingly suggested in The Da
Vinci Code is that Leonardo "forgot to include the Holy Grail". 8. In
formal ritual and ceremony, red and blue are often seen as royal colors,
and their use here could be suggesting a royal bloodline. There is some
evidence to suggest that Mary was a descendant of the royal house of
Benjamin, and it is known that Jesus was the direct heir to the royal
line of David of the House of Judah. Blue is also considered to be
representative of fidelity, spiritual love and truth. In The Da Vinci
Code, the painting under scrutiny is The Last Supper. It is claimed that
the figure on Jesus’s right is not the apostle John, but Mary
Magdalene, and that the two central figures, the postulated Mary
Magdalene and the figure of Jesus, form the inner sides of a large ‘M’
for Mary. This enclosing ‘M’ shape is interpreted as confirming the
importance of Mary Magdalene in Jesus’s life. She is the only woman
present and, as first apostle, sits at his right hand. It is pointed
out that there is no chalice on the table, and this is interpreted to
mean that the chalice was nonetheless there… in the person of Mary
Magdalene, the chalice being her womb, the sacred Sangreal, in which she
carried the bloodline of Jesus. It is suggested that the 90-degree ´V’
sign that can be drawn between her and Jesus is another cryptic Da Vinci
device symbolising the chalice, the sangreal, the womb of Mary
Magdalene. The ‘V’ and inverted ‘V’ signs were not uncommonly used
symbolically to indicate the female and male principles. If the figure
in the painting is the apostle John, as has been generally accepted to
this point, he is a curiously feminine figure, although young, unbearded
men were often presented in somewhat androgynous terms in the style of
the day. On the other hand, if the slender, narrow-shouldered, feminine
figure had been designated Mary Magdalene in the first place, it is
doubtful whether anyone would have queried her gender. That could leave
us with a numerical difficulty, but we have to remember that the
painting is Leonardo’s creation. If he intended the figure to be Mary
Magdalene, then his placing of her next to Jesus indicates that he
considered this to be her rightful place. Further, in terms of this
theory, it was Mary who was intended to be the founder of the Church
that would carry forward the teachings of Jesus, not Peter. It seems
doubtful whether Leonardo was anti-Christian as is sometimes suggested.
He makes many references to God in his work. Sharan Newman describes him
as being probably “a Christian in an absent-minded way”, although he
was firmly against such against Church practices as the selling of
indulgences. It is difficult to see the erratic, free-spirited,
independent Leonardo as Master of an organisation like the described
Priory of Sion. One of Leonardo’s problems, made clear by his phenomenal
range of sketches and notes, was that he was not a finisher. He was
always too tempted by visions of his next project or the possibilities
of some invention. It is doubtful whether any project would have held
his interest for long. However, it is just possible that the mystery of a
secret organisation like the Priory of Sion – if it ever existed in the
way that Dan Brown describes – might have fascinated him for a time.
He left thousands of notebooks filled with drawings, designs and
sketches. His ingenuity was endless, and his imagination so fertile that
he designed many of the inventions that could only be manufactured
centuries later when the technology was available. It is true, however,
that many of the Renaissance painters incorporated cryptic elements into
their paintings. It was fashionable to do so. It was also common for
them to use Phi, the Divine Proportion (1.618) as it was called, and the
Fibonacci sequences in spatial calculations. This kind of game would
have delighted a man of Leonardo’s temperament, especially if he were
introducing symbols that would have outraged many if interpreted. The
painter, Nicolas Poussin, a staunch admirer of Pythagoras, was one of
those who enjoyed the ancient practice of preserving wisdom through the
use of geometry, and he demonstrated this clearly in his most famous
painting, Les Bergers d’Aracdie II. Apart from the use of geometry in
the design of their paintings, many Renaissance artists used ‘sacred’
symbols freely in their work in such ways that they were unobtrusively
part of the scene: a rose might have secret significance, usually in
relationship to the Holy Grail or the Order of Rosicrucians; and fingers
held in a certain way or touching some part of the body or face might
indicate a secret greeting or have some other meaning to those able to
recognise it for what it was. Leonardo da Vinci often wrote in mirror
writing, but it is doubtful whether this was intended to be cryptic as
is sometimes suggested. It was too obviously simple to read. It was far
more likely that he was left-handed and found writing in this style
easy. In fact, he made it clear that he intended to publish much of his
writing at some time in the future, but – like many creative people
whose minds overflow with more ideas than they can ever work through –
he never reached the stage of compiling his written work into
publishable books.
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