THE SUPPER THAT KEEPS THE HISTORY AWAKE
VICTOR MANUEL GUZMÁN VILLENA
De Vinci the genius. A man who left in his paintings symbolics signs, gestures and veiled tracks that allude to hidden messages, a reserved legacy to those who assumes the challenge to decipher their symbolism.
The metaphysics that sustains his work The Last Supper, led to his invention of the technique of chiaroscuro-modeling of the forms by contrast between light and shadow, and the sfumato, consisting of eliminating the lines, diluting them in a kind of fog that produces an illusion effect of immersion in the material reality.
This atmospheric perspective - the landscaping backgrounds of his pictures are another constant of his work, also it was learned for the great Renaissance masters, Rafael, Sanzio and Andrea the Sarto. His method of composition - that reaches the summit with The Last Supper already announces in his precocious adoration of the wizards. The latest painting cannot be understood without his legacy and achievement.
Mary Magdalene or John?
Many students of the symbolism play with this question, indicating that in the painting the essential bread or chalice is not there. It is possible to be interpreted that the chalice absence implies that Maria is the saint Grail inverted. Leonardo da Vinci communicates in this work his conviction that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and were the founders of the Merovingia dynasty in France.
That she was going to be the leader of his Church. That Peter did not approve it, and that she was the authentic Saint Grail. The question in what is the base of this asseveration? It explains to us: that the personage who has considered John is in fact Mary Magdalene; by the position of Jesus and Maria forming a “M”; by a hand without body, supposedly the one of Peter, that uses a knife; and because there is no chalice: so the chalice must be Mary. Leonardo meant with this interpretation that his descendants are to his right.
The real problem is the result of our lack of familiarity with the “types”. In his Treaty of the Painting, Leonardo explains that each personage must be painted in accordance with their age and condition. A wise man has certain characteristics, old woman others and the children another. A classic type, like in many pictures of the Renaissance, is the “student”. The favorite, the proteges are always very young men, totally shaved and of long hair, in order to transmit the idea that not yet they have matured, not sufficient enough to have their way. Throughout the Renaissance, the artists painted thus to Saint John. They always represented him like a beardless young person, without the strong and resolute appearance of the man.
Another meaning
It is important to know that the Master studied the translation done by Ficino of the Asclepios, given work to Hermes Trismegisto, in which it was taught how the priests of the Pharaohs gave life to the statues of their temples and Da Vinci applied those techniques in his great work. Javier Sierra range, in his book Secret Supper, confirms the distribution of the disciples of the Cenacle. There are four groups of a three, to represent the four elements of nature, and he even assigns to each of them a specific zodiacal sign. Thus to Simon - who is to the right end of the table corresponds Aries. To Thaddeus, Taurus. To Mark, Gemini. The sign of Cancer is for Philip, for James the Major. Virgo for Thomas. And the balance of Libra for John or Magdalene, has an important symbolic here, when considering to the (a) young like an element adjuster of the future church. Scorpion for Judas, Sagittarius for Peter, Capricorn for Andrew, Aquarius for James the Minor and Pisces for Bartholomew. Each disciple have a correspond answer and Jesus in the center incarnates the ideal of the sun. It is a talisman work.
Also according to the distribution, Da Vinci assigns a letter to each disciple who is seated in the divine table. John and James occupy the places that Christ promised to them. along to Philip, Sapient among the twelve, the only one who pointed out himself, telling where we need to find our salvation. The remaining group of apostles was solved with identical rapidity. Mateo, the disciple whose name, means “gift of promptness", already augured a quick outcome.
And Leonardo baptized like Nevus, the diligent one. His letter added to the Omega of the Taddeo formed a legible syllable already “N-O”. then add to it C , the resulting panorama felt like an evocative: four groups of three letters, with a vowel always in center and an enormous one to presiding over the scene let themselves read a stranger and forgotten magical formula MUIT NEM TO the NOC. That extracted of an Egyptian text its means Mut, wife of Amon “the Hidden one”, the great God of the Pharaohs. But as Leonardo da Vinci always wrote the other way around, and is necessary to read reflecting it in the mirror, means IT CONSOLE A-MEN-TUM, like the knot of the table cloth. The secret of the 13 personages represented in his painting incarnates the thirteen letters of the Consolamentrum, unique sacrament admitted by the pure men (the Cataros), an invisible, intimate spiritual sacrament.
