da Vinci’s Last Supper Predicts the End of the World?
I know you’re thinking that this is a clickbait title but I promise this is a real thing that art history scholars have been looking into. Spoiler, the world hasn’t ended (yet) but it’s interesting to examine the symbols and their meanings which lead to this conclusion.
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
This work is one of da Vinci’s most recognized pieces. It is a mural that was painted between 1495-1498 and it depicts Jesus surrounded by the twelve apostles, specifically the moment right after he tells them that one of them will betray him. We see Jesus in the middle of the composition with the apostles around him looking shocked and talking amongst themselves, trying to take in what they’ve just been told.
It is interesting to look at each apostle and notice that da Vinci has given them each a slightly different reaction or response to the news. From left to right there is Bartholomew, James son of Alphaeus, Andrew (the first group of three), Judas, Peter, John (the second group of three to the left of Jesus), Jesus himself, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip (third group of three), Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot (the final grouping on the far right).
Sometimes in depictions of the Last Supper artists have chosen different ways to identify Judas, either by putting him on the other side of the table with his back to the viewer or giving all the other apostles halos. da Vinci has instead chosen to have his Judas leaning back into shadow, he is the lowest person vertically in the painting and he is holding a small bag symbolizing the money that he accepted for betraying Jesus. Additionally, Jesus is predicting that his betrayer will take a piece of bread at the same time as him, and is reaching out for some bread that is on the table. Distracted by the conversation between Peter and John, Judas is also reaching for the bread before him on the table.
When creating this piece da Vinci walked around Milan to find inspiration for the faces but this served to stall his work when he couldn’t find a criminal-looking face to base Judas on. When the convent’s prior complained to Ludovico Sforza (da Vinci’s patron and the man who commissioned this piece for the wall of the mausoleum) that it was taking da Vinci too long to find a suitable face, da Vinci replied that the prior’s face would work fine if he couldn’t find a criminal.
Doomsday Prediction?
Not a ton has been released about this but scholar Sabrina Sforza Galitzia, who used to study da Vinci manuscripts at the University of California Los Angeles and now works at the Vatican archives, believes that she has uncovered and cracked a code that da Vinci hid in The Last Supper.
Above Jesus’ head we can make out a half-moon window and Galitzia says that therein lies a mathematical puzzle involving the signs of the zodiac and 24 letters of the Latin alphabet. She is currently writing a book about her findings so she hasn’t released too many spoilers to the public.
What she does say is that da Vinci clearly predicts an end of the world scenario beginning sometime around March 21, 4006 and the world will be gone by November 1, 4006. At that time a catastrophic flood will consume humanity as we know it. Yikes. Luckily we have 1,984 years before that happens.
Works Cited
Elliot, Teddy. “Vatican Researcher has Revealed the Date the World Will End”. MTL Blog. 2019. https://www.mtlblog.com/vatican-researcher-has-revealed-the-date-the-world-will-end
“7 Conspiracy Theories about Famous Paintings”. Carter Art. 2021. https://www.carterart.art/article/7-conspiracy-theories-about-famous-paintings