Much has been made in recent books/movies about the supposed inclusion of the figure of Mary Magdalene, seated in the place of honor on Jesus' right, in The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. Even though most art scholars concur that the figure is in fact that of the disciple John, crazed fans of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Load swear that it must be Jesus' secret wife, relying on their years of non-experience in art history to make that claim.
Shown above are two details of the figure of John from Da Vinci's Last Supper, representing the appearance of the figure both before and after extensive (and rather invasive) "restoration and cleaning work" was done on the fragile fresco. One can clearly see how much more feminine the figure appears after the restoration. The restorer has changed the shape of the face, removed the shadowed eyebrows and what appears to be facial hair, and even changed the color of the figure's clothes! John has been effectively eradicated and replaced by some girlish fop in pastels, but that does not reinforce any of the ridiculous theories put forth by populist fictioneers in their haphazard, irresponsibly researched "books."
Seek the truth, my brothers and sisters, for it is seeking you.
4 comments:
What did they use to restore that painting? Microsoft Paint?
Around the beginning of the Da Vinci Code Craze, I accidentally caught a TV special about the restoration of the painting. And I remember thinking, am I the only one who can see that they've actually just repainted the picture? It looks totally different! Maybe in a few centuries art restorers with fabulous technology will re-restore it. They'll probably be horrified at those rubes from the 21st century.
I'm pretty sure it was Dan Brown's private copy of Adobe Photoshop CS.
Rubes...such a good word.
What I want to know is what happened to the two guys in the window over Mary-John's shoulder! They aren't even IN the restored version! I smell a cover-up!
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