Art Appreciation: Story of "The Last Supper"

Video Transcript

"We're going to take a close look at a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci Last supper. It is one of the more famous images. Easily recognize in the world these days. It's not in good shape, so that explains some of the surface problems here. But, with a lot of paintings, especially with people in them more then one person. As social beings we want to know what the story is, what is going on in the picture. What are the people doing and what's happening to them? So for a lot of these you need to know the title if nothing else, to help you get along with the story is. In this cause it is the Last Supper and since for a long period of time Christianity was the sort of over aching principle. Everybody knew that meant that is was Christ Last Supper and everybody knew that Christ Last Supper was Christ and his 12 disciples. So, there should be 12 men plus Christ at the table. And, that it was happening before you know the trials of Gethsemane and all that. So, that’s the knowledge we bring to this we have a backbone of a story. Also, to note in this particular rendition of the Last Supper, is that Leonardo choose the moment that Christ had just said one of you will betray me. So those words just came out of his mouth when this got painted. If you had taken a snapshot that's when he would have taken it."