. Discuss the connection between Da Vinci’s and Julie Green’s The Last Supper; then, discuss whether you believe Green’s use of the religious painting is reverent or irreverent, and why

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. Green began The Last Supper to draw attention to the number of Americans executed every year under death penalty laws and to question the humanity of a society that would leave individuals to finish their lives on death row. Green began by asking from state to state about the menu each death row inmate requested for his or her “last meal.” She depicted each of these meals on a different plate, each of which is accompanied by a descriptive text and titled with the state of execution and date.
2. Today, the plates number more than 500 and though each last meal is depicted on a plate, hung as they are, vertically on the wall, they look decidedly empty. Green’s plates are as empty as the plate in front of Christ in da Vinci’s Last Supper, in which Christ has just announced, “One of you shall betray me,” while simultaneously reaching across the table, toward a piece of bread with his left hand and toward a glass of wine with his right, prefiguring the sacrament of the Eucharist, which symbolizes divine forgiveness. Instead of divine forgiveness, Green’s plates bear witness to social retribution and secular revenge. Nevertheless, they are designed to move us to compassion for these 500-plus human beings whom we as a culture have condemned—and perhaps betrayed.
3. Students’ judgments regarding the newer work’s reverence/irreverence will vary.