For The Continuing Presence of the Past: Julie Green’s The Last Supper: Da Vinci’s Last Supper was installed at the end wall of the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, where the monks would have had to contemplate it over every meal. What feelings might a contemporary viewer of Green’s plates, filling an entire wall in their installation, share with those Renaissance monks?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Da Vinci’s Last Supper hung in front of monks who were to contemplate Jesus’ compassion every time they viewed the painting. Green’s The Last Supper similarly attempts to evoke compassion from its viewers—compassion for these 500-plus human beings whom we as a culture have, in essence, crucified. On the night that Leonardo depicts, Christ sat at one with the condemned—metaphorically, at least—whose last suppers Green documents. Just as surely as Jesus will, the next day, draw his last breath, the empty plate before him symbolizes that he has, for the last time, partaken of the nourishment necessary to sustain his physical body. This first Last Supper eerily projects many last suppers to come.