Catholics/daVinci's Last Supper

Advertisement

Expert: - 10/27/2010


Question
I have found a few sites that identify each figure in daVinci's Last Supper, but I wonder where we get this information from.  I can understand that the man holding the money bag is probably Judas...but what about the rest?  Who figured all this out?  The only thing I've found on the net so far is a vague reference to someone (without indicating a name) who wrote about this in the 1800's.  This is not a serious issue of course...someone is guessing at which apostles are depicted...unless daVinci wrote about it himself.

On a serious note, I really don't have a question just a statement of what I believe.  The apostle John does look somewhat effeminate in daVinci's painting, but I don't believe for a minute that this is actually Mary Magdalene.  I also believe that belief that Jesus was married borders on the blasphemous.  Thanks in advance for anything you can share.

Answer
Dave, I enjoy art but I'm not an art person. Perhaps you could ask in that section at this site, if one exists.

I did look at wiki, however, and it seems dV kept copious notes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

(search keyword: notebooks)

As for your other comments, this isn't really the place for a kind of open forum discussion.

There are Catholic forums on the web. Maybe try these:

http://www.catholic-pages.com/default.htm

http://www.catholic.com/

Catholics

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Expertise

I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.