Serious researchers are also wondering whether Leonardo wanted to send a message through certain pictorial elements in his famous “Last Supper” – especially the salt shaker, the fish and the bread puzzled Canadian researchers.

Does ‘The Last Supper’ Really Have a Hidden Meaning?

Montréal (Canada) – In his famous mural “The Last Supper”, Leonardo da Vinci may have conveyed messages through certain pictorial elements that could provide information about Leonardo’s view of religion. The Canadian research team particularly noticed the salt shaker, the fish, and the bread. The salt shaker could even be an indication that Leonardo did not see Judas as a traitor at all. “We asked ourselves why Da Vinci chose these special foods, even though they did not match what the evangelists described,” explains Olivier Bauer of the Université de Montréal. “Why is there bread, fish, salt, citrus fruits, and wine? Why did the salt shaker fall over in front of Judas? Why is the bread leavened?”

The team around Olivier Bauer from the Université de Montréal wonders whether the salt shaker, in particular, could not rehabilitate Judas: “The previous commentators usually took the spilled salt as a sign that Judas refused the covenant that Jesus offered his disciples.” Because salt indicates the biblical word of Jesus: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5, 13). But the spilled salt can also be interpreted differently: “The fallen salt shaker could be a sign not of the wickedness, but of the misfortune of Judas. The fallen salt shaker – traditionally the symbol of misfortune – could serve to rehabilitate Judas by assumes that he could only fulfill the role that fate had given him. ”

The fish has also been seen as significant in other interpretations of the mural. For one thing, he certainly reminds us that Jesus spent a long time of his life at the Sea of ​​Galilee. And fish also appears in various miracles that tradition says Jesus performed. But with the fish depicted, it could have a completely different reason if one considers the Italian names that Leonardo might have used. If the fish is herring, it is called “aringa” in Italian. For this purpose, there is homophony in Italian – a harmony of two different words – namely with “arringa”, which means ‘plea’ or ‘address’. This indicates the one who is teaching or making something known. Olivier Bauer and his colleagues also point out another resonance: “In northern Italy, a sardine or a herring is called ‘renga’, a diminutive that also suggests the word ‘rinnegato’ – ‘renegade’, that is, the person who denies religion. ” Since Leonardo was a northern Italian, he was probably familiar with the term “renga”.

Finally, the researchers identify the bread as leavened bread based on its shape. So it is not about the matzo, the unleavened bread that, according to the Jewish religion, is eaten on the Seder evening of the Passover festival. Here one can see a “de-Judaization”, but because of the wine, which is also only half full in the cups, the scene is “re-Judaized” again. Probably, however, according to the researchers, Leonardo assumed that bread – as well as citrus fruits – was based on what came on a dining table in the age of the Renaissance, and that included bread and fruits.

The famous Leonardo Da Vinci left us with incredible works of art that the world upholds and cherishes. Duplicates of his work are highly-priced that moving them requires the hands of experts like the tow truck San Jose. Visiting the genuine works of Da Vinci is worth adding to your bucket list. And owning even one of them is a treasure that could be passed on to generations.