Did da Vinci get "The Last Supper" wrong?

[Harel13]

Short answer: Maybe?

Long answer: I was talking to a friend last night and we got to talking about the Jewish Halacha of reclining (Hasava - הסבה in Hebrew) during the Passover Seder, when suddenly I realized: Wait a minute, The Last Supper took place on Seder night, and in da Vinci's famous painting, they aren't reclining!

A little background: Reclining on low beds was the way rich people both in the Middle East and in the Greco-Roman cultures used to eat. It was so heavily identified with prominence and elitism that this became a Halacha in Judaism for Seder night, the first night of Passover. There's a Mishna that says that even a poor man of Israel shouldn't eat until he is reclining (because reclining shows that you're a free person).

As is well-known, Jesus and his disciples were Jewish at the time of his death. The last supper was his last meal before the crucifixion and thought to be (to my knowledge), the Passover feast of the first night of Passover. While it's true that the Passover meal then was the Temple-era version and different from what we have today (which is partially in remembrance of the Temple-era version), but the concept of appearing and feeling like a free, important person during Passover was always a theme. The Mishna I mentioned above could've been written during or around Jesus's time (The entire Mishna was completed around the year 200 CE if I remember correctly). In fact, there's a well-known story in the Talmud about five famous rabbis reclining in Bnei Brak on Passover night. This was around the time of the Bar-Kochva Revolt, only 100 years after Jesus's time. With all this being said, I think it's fair to assume that even during Jesus's time it was traditional to recline during the Passover meal.

Yet Leonardo da Vinci - and other artists as can be viewed here: Last Supper - Wikipedia - decided to depict those early "Jewish-Christians" not reclining during the meal, but sitting on regular chairs with a high table and eating like they did during the Renaissance and till today. LDV was a smart person, but I don't know if he ever had any contact with Jews in his life, so it's very possible that he had no idea that this is how Jews eat on Seder night. Another possibility is that he was aware of this but wanted to be able to depict everyone's faces, maybe also some action in the scene. With everyone reclining on low beds in a circle around a table, it would've been hard to draw everyone and show anything exciting going on.

Just my two-cents on the subject.

 

[Galateasdream]

I imagine there's many such errors.

 

[Altfish]

It's not a photograph.

 

[exchemist]

Short answer: Maybe?

Long answer: I was talking to a friend last night and we got to talking about the Jewish Halacha of reclining (Hasava - הסבה in Hebrew) during the Passover Seder, when suddenly I realized: Wait a minute, The Last Supper took place on Seder night, and in da Vinci's famous painting, they aren't reclining!

A little background: Reclining on low beds was the way rich people both in the Middle East and in the Greco-Roman cultures used to eat. It was so heavily identified with prominence and elitism that this became a Halacha in Judaism for Seder night, the first night of Passover. There's a Mishna that says that even a poor man of Israel shouldn't eat until he is reclining (because reclining shows that you're a free person).

As is well-known, Jesus and his disciples were Jewish at the time of his death. The last supper was his last meal before the crucifixion and thought to be (to my knowledge), the Passover feast of the first night of Passover. While it's true that the Passover meal then was the Temple-era version and different from what we have today (which is partially in remembrance of the Temple-era version), but the concept of appearing and feeling like a free, important person during Passover was always a theme. The Mishna I mentioned above could've been written during or around Jesus's time (The entire Mishna was completed around the year 200 CE if I remember correctly). In fact, there's a well-known story in the Talmud about five famous rabbis reclining in Bnei Brak on Passover night. This was around the time of the Bar-Kochva Revolt, only 100 years after Jesus's time. With all this being said, I think it's fair to assume that even during Jesus's time it was traditional to recline during the Passover meal.

Yet Leonardo da Vinci - and other artists as can be viewed here: Last Supper - Wikipedia - decided to depict those early "Jewish-Christians" not reclining during the meal, but sitting on regular chairs with a high table and eating like they did during the Renaissance and till today. LDV was a smart person, but I don't know if he ever had any contact with Jews in his life, so it's very possible that he had no idea that this is how Jews eat on Seder night. Another possibility is that he was aware of this but wanted to be able to depict everyone's faces, maybe also some action in the scene. With everyone reclining on low beds in a circle around a table, it would've been hard to draw everyone and show anything exciting going on.

Just my two-cents on the subject.

I think your last para covers it. It seems fairly common for painters to depict people from the ancient past following contemporary practices, in dress and other things. And the other way round too - I'm sure I've seen depictions of fat c.18th gentlemen in Roman togas, presumably to make them seem more historically important!

In this case it probably helped viewers to relate to the scene depicted and the artist may well not have known what we now consider the historically accurate practice in question. That is not what was important to the effect he would have wanted to produce.

But these things can sometimes grate, when you know they've got it wrong and committed an anachronism.

 

[Augustus]

The dude who built a big-assed door in the middle of it certainly made a mistake

But these things can sometimes grate, when you know they've got it wrong and committed an anachronism.

If you look carefully you can notice that someone left a Starbucks cup on the table.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Painted nicely. The height of the door could have been easily reduced.
Is it a door or a plaque?

 

[Augustus]

Painted nicely. The height of the door could have been easily reduced.
Is it a door or a plaque?

It's a door that was later bricked up. It was built after the painting was done, although iirc the painting was in some state of disrepair at the time rather than being the restored masterpiece it is today. Maybe it looked more like the monkey-Jesus that the old lady painted in Spain when trying to restore it

Reminds me about Rembrandt's Night Watch which someone cut the edges off as it was too big for the wall

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Short answer: Maybe? ...

I think we can safely assume that Da Vinci had never studied Tractate Pesachim.

At the same time, Wikipedia: Last Supper offers:

All Gospels agree that Jesus held a Last Supper with his disciples prior to dying on a Friday at or just before the time of Passover (annually on 15 Nisan, the official Jewish day beginning at sunset) and that his body was left in the tomb for the whole of the next day, which was a Shabbat (Saturday). However, while the Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal, the Gospel of John makes no explicit mention that the Last Supper was a Passover meal and presents the official Jewish Passover feast as beginning in the evening a few hours after the death of Jesus. John thus implies that the Friday of the crucifixion was the day of preparation for the feast (14 Nisan), not the feast itself (15 Nisan), and astronomical calculations of ancient Passover dates initiated by Isaac Newton, and posthumously published in 1733, support John's chronology.​

Also interesting is Wikipedia: Last Supper in Christian art.

So, I would counter your "Maybe?" with "maybe not."

 

[exchemist]

I think we can safely assume that Da Vinci had never studied Tractate Pesachim.

At the same time, Wikipedia: Last Supper offers:

All Gospels agree that Jesus held a Last Supper with his disciples prior to dying on a Friday at or just before the time of Passover (annually on 15 Nisan, the official Jewish day beginning at sunset) and that his body was left in the tomb for the whole of the next day, which was a Shabbat (Saturday). However, while the Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal, the Gospel of John makes no explicit mention that the Last Supper was a Passover meal and presents the official Jewish Passover feast as beginning in the evening a few hours after the death of Jesus. John thus implies that the Friday of the crucifixion was the day of preparation for the feast (14 Nisan), not the feast itself (15 Nisan), and astronomical calculations of ancient Passover dates initiated by Isaac Newton, and posthumously published in 1733, support John's chronology.​

Also interesting is Wikipedia: Last Supper in Christian art.

So, I would counter your "Maybe?" with "maybe not."

But tell me, was it custom at that time in Judea to eat sitting at table with chairs, or did they do as the Romans and recline for their meals anyway?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

But tell me, was it custom at that time in Judea to eat sitting at table with chairs, or did they do as the Romans and recline for their meals anyway?

I do not know Roman dining protocols or the extent to which they may have been a function of class, station, or circumstance.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Parenthetically:

Eating and drinking in a banquet setting in which one reclined and ate and drank at a leisurely pace took on very early the sense of an activity symbolizing the life of luxury. This point is made in a study of the origin of reclining in the Greek world by Jean-Marie Dentzer.33 Dentzer points out how from the beginning of its introduction as a custom in the Greek world, reclining carried with it the aura of royal luxury. Our first evidence for the custom among the Greeks is a collection of pictorial reliefs on early funerary monuments in which the deceased is shown reclining at a meal. The pictorial motifs used in these reliefs are shown to be directly related to an artistic style used to illustrate the luxury of royal life in reliefs of eastern kings. Like the eastern kings, the Greeks show themselves on their funerary monuments in all their finery, surrounded by servants, wife, and children, reclining on a couch of luxury, enjoying a luxurious repast.34 The upper class imagery is carried out in the actual practices connected with the custom. For besides the accouterments of luxurious pillows and couches, elaborate foods, and servants, those who banqueted were reminded of their standing in society by the fact that they reclined; for custom dictated that only free citizens were to recline-women, children, and slaves were to sit when they ate.​

From Table Fellowship as a Literary Motif in the Gospel of Luke; Dennis E. Smith, JBL 106/4 (1987)

 

[Harel13]

I think we can safely assume that Da Vinci had never studied Tractate Pesachim.

At the same time, Wikipedia: Last Supper offers:

All Gospels agree that Jesus held a Last Supper with his disciples prior to dying on a Friday at or just before the time of Passover (annually on 15 Nisan, the official Jewish day beginning at sunset) and that his body was left in the tomb for the whole of the next day, which was a Shabbat (Saturday). However, while the Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal, the Gospel of John makes no explicit mention that the Last Supper was a Passover meal and presents the official Jewish Passover feast as beginning in the evening a few hours after the death of Jesus. John thus implies that the Friday of the crucifixion was the day of preparation for the feast (14 Nisan), not the feast itself (15 Nisan), and astronomical calculations of ancient Passover dates initiated by Isaac Newton, and posthumously published in 1733, support John's chronology.​

Also interesting is Wikipedia: Last Supper in Christian art.

So, I would counter your "Maybe?" with "maybe not."

Fair enough.

 

[dybmh]

The Last Supper took place on Seder night

Thanks for reminding me about this.

@sooda, What's your opinion of The Last Supper? Is it fact or fiction that Jesus was leading or attending a Passover Seder?

 

[sun rise]

History can be interesting and it's one thing.

Asking a literalist question of an artist's rendition of something he might be depicting symbolically is not interesting to me.

 

[pearl]

Matthew 26:19-20 19So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. 20When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.


Luke 22:14-16 14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

Whether He reclined or not depends on which Bible translation is used.