Every year millions of people travel to Milan to pay homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper. Painted by Leonardo for Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d’Este in the late 15th century, the scene represents The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus’s life, as narrated in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve apostles would betray him.
Most visitors are intrigued by the complicated (and problematic) technique that Leonardo used in painting the scene: instead of painting on wet plaster as is usual in the creation of a fresco, the artist painted on a dry wall, sealing the stone with pitch, gesso, and mastic, and then painting on the sealing layer with tempera. As is commonly known, Leonardo’s invented technique did not work very well — it’s a conservator’s nightmare– and within a few years of completion it had already begun showing signs of deterioration.
Other visitors admire the fresco for its psychological expressions. The painting specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock.
Now, with the publication of a new study by art historian John Varriano in the journal Gastronomica, visitors paying homage to The Last Supper can lick their lips as gaze upon the seder meal on the Leonardo’s painted table for Varriano has figured out what Jesus and his apostles are eating.
Varriano explains why scholars have commonly assumed that lamb must be the main course:
the event takes place at Passover, a time when lamb would normally be served, but scripture is silent on the menu for this particular seder. Apart from Matthew (26:20), who notes that the dinner took place in the evening, and Mark (14:15) and Luke (22:12), who add that it was held in “a large room upstairs, already furnished,” the biblical account could hardly be less informative when it comes to the meal itself
However, close examination of the painting made possible because of extensive restoration done in 1997 has shown that the meal was a bit fishier:
There are three large serving platters in the picture, and although the one in front of Christ is empty, the two before Andrew and Matthew—the fourth figures to his right and left—are heaped with food. The plate to our left appears to contain about half a dozen whole fish, while the one on the right is damaged to the point of being all but illegible. Fortunately, the preservation of the three small serving dishes on the right side of the composition is sufficiently good to suggest that we are looking at, in fact, sections of grilled eel garnished with orange slices. Other pieces of fruit—pomegranates perhaps, some still with their leaves attached—complete the menu along with plenty of bread and wine, the only sacramental necessities in any depiction of the Last Supper.
To download Varriano’s article and learn more (it’s only 5 pages long), visit the Gastronomica website.
