> THE LAST SUPPER
> Author Unknown
> fw: by Carissa Gates
>
> Leonardo Da Vinci, a noted Italian artist painted the Last Supper; and
> the time engaged for it's completion was seven years. The figures
> representing the twelve Apostles and Christ himself were painted from
> living persons. The life-model for the painting of the figure of Jesus
> was chosen first.
>
> When it was decided that Da Vinci would paint this great picture,
> hundreds and hundreds of young men were carefully viewed in an
> endeavor to find a face and personality exhibiting innocence and beauty,
> free from the scars and signs of dissipation caused by sin. Finally,
after
> weeks of laborious search, a young man nineteen years of age, was
> selected as a model for the portrayal of Christ. For six months
> DaVinci worked on the production of this leading character
> of his famous painting.
>
> During the next six years DaVinci continued his labors on this sublime
> work of art. One by one fitting persons were chosen to represent each
> of the eleven Apostles; space being left for the painting of the figure
> representing Judas Iscariot as the final task of this masterpiece.
>
> This was the Apostle, you remember, who betrayed his Lord for
> thirty pieces of silver, worth in our present day currency $16.96.
>
> For weeks Da Vinci searched for a man with a hard, callous face, with
> a countenance marked by scars of avarice, deceit, hypocrisy, and crime;
> a face that would delineate a character who would betray his best
> friend.
>
> After many discouraging experiences in searching for the type of
> person required to represent Judas, word came to Da Vinci
> that a man whose appearance fully met his requirements had
> been found in a dungeon in Rome, sentenced to die for a life
> of crime and murder.
>
> Da Vinci made the trip to Rome at once, and this man was brought out
> from his imprisonment in the dungeon and led out into the light of
> the sun.
> There DaVinci saw before him a dark, swarthy man; his long shaggy and
> unkempt hair sprawled over his face, which betrayed a character of
> viciousness and complete ruin. At last the famous painter had found
> the person he wanted to represent the character of Judas in his
painting.
>
> By special permission from the king, this prisoner was carried to Milan
> where the picture was being painted. For months he sat before DaVinci
> at appointed hours each day as the gifted artist diligently continued
> his task of transmitting, to his painting, this base character
> representing the
> traitor and betrayer of our Lord and Savior. As he finished his last
> stroke, he turned to the guards and said, "I have finished.
> You may take the prisoner away."
>
> As the guards were leading their prisoner away, he suddenly broke
> loose from their control and rushed up to Da Vinci, crying as he did so,
>"O, Da Vinci, look at me! Do you not know who I am?"
>
> Da Vinci, with the trained eyes of a great character student,
> carefully scrutinized the man upon whose face he had constantly
> gazed for six months and replied, "No, I have never seen you in my life
> until you were brought before me out of the dungeon in Rome."
>
> Then, lifting his eyes toward heaven, the prisoner said, "Oh, God,
> have I fallen so low?" Then turning his face to the painter he cried,
>"Leonardo DaVinci! Look at me again for I am the same man you
> painted just seven years ago as the figure of "Jesus Christ."
>
> This is the true story of the painting of The Last Supper.
> It teaches so strongly the lesson of the effects of right,
> or wrong thinking on the life of an individual.
> Here was a young man whose character was so pure,
> unspoiled by the sins of the world,
> that he represented a countenance of innocence
> and beauty fit to be used for the painting of a representation of
> Jesus Christ.
>
> But within seven years, following the thoughts of sin and a life of
> crime, he was changed into a perfect picture of the most traitorous
> character ever known in the history of the world
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