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Is it John or Mary Magdalene?
In the painting, some biblical scholars say that the person who is at the right hand of Jesus is John. But there is another perspective. Many people say that it is a woman sitting and it is most likely to be Mary Magdalene, the only person wearing a pendant or necklace. The woman is sitting at the right side which is a preferred and honoured place. It is believed that the medieval Christian leaders made a conscious effort to call the figure John. But still, there are reasons to say that it is not Mary Magdalene. Although she was present at the event, she was not listed among the people at the table, and according to the biblical accounts, she had a minor supporting role.
It is believed that The Last Supper is key evidence covering up the true identity of Christ by the Roman Catholic church. But it is still a mystery what it is actually.
Who was Judas?
The Bible offers a few details about the background of Judas. He is one among the 12 closest disciples of Jesus, and he is the only one whom the Bible identifies by the town of his origin. His surname is Iscariot which is linked by some scholars to Queriot, a town located south of Jerusalem in Judea. He is with dark skin and a crooked nose and is said to be an outsider.
In the painting, he is seen with a bag of money placed in front of him and it is believed that he was paid thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus. Instead of wine, Judas is drinking milk, so this depicts that if Judas had been drinking wine, which Jesus indicates is his blood, he would have been forgiven, but Leonardo reflects Judas as an outsider and unforgiven.
Also according to the Bible, Judas shows signs where he lacks table manners and spills salt, which brings bad luck.
Music revealed in the painting
Giovanni Maria Pala, a 45-year-old Italian musician, began studying Leonardo's painting in 2003, after hearing on a news program that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a musical composition in the work.
Pala explains that he took elements of the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology and interpreted them as musical clues.
He first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent a musical note.
This fit the relation in Christian symbolism between the bread, representing the body of Christ, and the hands, which are used to bless the food. But the notes made no sense musically until Pala realized that the score had to be read from right to left, following Leonardo's particular writing style.
The man with the knife
The man holding the knife is said to be Peter. He is the disciple leaning over to talk to Mary/John. But why is he holding a knife in his hand? Historically, Peter would have had it in a later scene when the guard comes to take Jesus away. So Peter wanted to defend Jesus using the knife.
Halos
Before Leonardo da Vinci’s version of the painting The Last Supper, there are versions that showed Jesus and his followers with halos that portray them as saints. But Leonardo’s version doesn’t have halos around their heads, indicating that the disciples were common people and Jesus was a mortal. A Milan-based inventor and expert, Mario Taddei says that Leonardo has omitted the Halos to convey a message. According to him, the people shown are not saints but simple men. Leonardo wanted us to know that they are common men and so there are no supernatural or any extraterrestrial objects involved.
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