Zoom+Scroll Leonardo da Vinci's Blasphemous Joke "The Last Supper" in High Res., page 1

High-Res Last Supper Reveals Leonardo's Secrets

from Wired Magazine.

MILAN, Italy -- A 16-billion-pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper -- said to be the world's highest-resolution photo -- is now on-line, making the masterpiece available for scrutiny by art lovers everywhere.

White-robed Dominican monks opened the doors of their sacristy to unveil the high-res image of the painting on a giant screen just steps away from the real thing at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

The digitized version, produced using special techniques designed to protect the fragile painting from damaging light exposure, gives anyone with an internet connection a chance to dig deeper into Leonardo's techniques than ever before.

With the air of chiding an old friend, Leonardo expert Pietro Marani zoomed in on the cuff of traitor Judas to show the gold flake Leonardo applied.

"He went against his own better judgment here," Marani said. "We know he considered using real gold a cop-out, that he thought true artists should be able to make paint glitter like gold, but there it is."

For a close-up on the workings of a genius, Marani recommended viewers search the Last Supper for the church bell tower and shrubs outside the windows, the patterns and wrinkles in the tablecloth, the reflection of an orange wedge in a pewter plate in front of Matthew and the perspective lines in the upper left-hand corner that lead (imperfectly) to Jesus' eye.

Technicians at HAL9000, a company specializing in art photography, faced a number of challenges in capturing the 15th-century depiction of the moment when Jesus tells his apostles that one of them will betray him.

Leonardo used oil and tempera paints on dry plaster, an experimental technique, and as a result, the Last Supper is now so faded and cracked it can't withstand exposure to bright light. To protect the painting, HAL9000 worked with restoration specialists at Rome's Istituto Centrale per il Restauro to develop a lighting system without the ultraviolet emissions and high thermal impact so hazardous to works of art. Shot with a Nikon D2X digital SLR in just nine hours, the total impact of the digitization process was equal to just a few minutes of the soft lighting that normally illuminates the painting.

Back in their office, technical supervisor Mauro Gavinelli and his team stitched together 1,677 panoramic images of the 15-foot-by-29-foot painting using two quad-core AMD Opteron processors, 16 GB of memory and a 2-terabyte hard disk.

In the late 1400s, Leonardo painted the Last Supper, called Il Cenacolo in Italian, to provide monks at Santa Maria delle Grazie something to contemplate during meals. Father Stefano Rabacchi, the current prior of the monastery, said that although the work was originally painted just for them, they are obliged to share it with the world today.

Some 320,000 tourists troop in every year to see it, often reserving tickets for a 15-minute viewing months in advance. Visitors pass through a decontamination chamber, 25 at a time, where some of the city smog is sucked from their clothes.

Concerns about the fading mural's health were raised again when Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Friday that PM10 levels in the church's dining hall have tripled in the last two years, raising concerns about how long the work will ultimately stay open to the public.

An filtration system removes up to 70 percent of the pollution from the chamber, said curator Alberto Artioli, adding that doors won't close on the work any time soon.

For those not able or willing to come to Milan, will a virtual visit surpass the actual painting?

"It's exciting to see just how technology can show what you wouldn't normally be able to see," said Vincenzo Mirarchi, HAL9000's general manager. "But it's not meant to substitute for the real thing. Seeing it on a computer screen will never be the same as standing in front of Leonardo's work."

www.wired.com...

Zoom+Scroll it in High Res HERE

Link: www.haltadefinizione.com...

==============================

I'll refrain for the time being from indicating why, precisely, I am calling da Vinci's famous painting a "Blasphemous Joke", because I want to get everyone else's comments and impressions about it, regarding just what it is that the reknown genius, da Vinci, was wanting to convey here, and right under the Church's nose I might add...which, imho, makes it even more funny/amuzing, or funny-strange I'm not quite sure which it is, yet..

So I'd like the help of ATS, in getting to the bottom of what's become popularized by Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" as a mystery worth solving.

So. What are your thoughts and impressions?


Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

NAM

reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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Sorry it got away from me when I was starting the OP, accidentially hit enter before including any content - adding finishing touches now. My apologies.

reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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There we go, it's all in now, although now you might become even more perplexed...

reply to post by NewAgeMan

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"I'll refrain for the time being from indicating why"

Translation: PLEASE Star and Flag this, PLEASE.

reply to post by NewAgeMan

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Interesting, especially the knife and the strange concoction of bodies to the direct left (facing) "Christ." The hands seem to be in very strange positions. What I find humorous is that these religious wankers have allowed charging money to examine the digital image of this painting. Just another episode in the "Days of the Money Changers." Not that I would purchase the app, but it is only available for the ipod/ipad/apple, there is no app apparently for android. At some point the entire image will be available for download (looks to the left at 4chan).

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by potatotomato2

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Hardly. No, I just want to find out what other people are able to glean from a close scrutiny of this famous painting which we all just assume on the face of it to have a certain meaning, but one which, on closeer scrutiny and analysis, seems to contain imbedded within itself other meanings and possible interpretations. I don't give a rats a__ about stars and flags, what for, they make no difference.

You don't even have to get the program for detailed zooming to get a good look at the various elements of the painting.

To start with, in regards to the first two people on Jesus' left (our right looking at it), with the one, gape-mouthed and staring at Jesus' right hand (his own hands spread apart as if he's awestruck at what he's seeing), and the other, behind him, with a look of self-righteous smugness on his face, and his long, left-handed index finger pointing straight up, well here's a glimpse at what I'm talking about in calling it a "blasphemous joke", on page four of the thread The Life of Issa and the Gospels

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And we haven't even touched on the empty V space on Jesus' right and who sits there, and if the guy to (her) right is signalling a "cut throat" with his hand..

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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Sorry it got away from me when I was starting the OP, accidentially hit enter before including any content - adding finishing touches now. My apologies.

edit on 13-6-2012 by NewAgeMan because: (no reason given)

hey , no worries , right after i posted that , i seen your reply XD good thread though

reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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Thanks, but I'm kind of surprised that it hasn't garnered more interest, as you'd think more people around here would be into such a heretical mystery revealed, in da Vinci's depiction of "The Last Supper". .

reply to post by NewAgeMan

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who or what exactly is the ghostly image between Jesus and Mary?Is that Mary?(in the v)
I also see a ghostly cat or owl above the middle window?Am I seeing things?

reply to post by TWILITE22

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Hi TWILITE22,

I see what you're referring to, and yes, you're "seeing things" in the sense that this is a mural painted on a wall


and there's been some degradation over the years, and some flaking away of paint, etc. where the mind will find patterns, like seeing faces in clouds that kind of thing.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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Thanks, but I'm kind of surprised that it hasn't garnered more interest, as you'd think more people around here would be into such a heretical mystery revealed, in da Vinci's depiction of "The Last Supper". .

i agree , i find it super fascinating , what is strange to me , is the big grayed out spot in front of the table like something was suppose be be their .

reply to post by LightningStrikesHere

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It IS a very heretical joke.

I've unravelled it's core mystery, which is about the resurrection, Jesus' foreknowledge of it, which is settling over them in realization, of what he intends, which is to survive the ordeal, grab his girlfriend by the hand (making of her his wife ) and leave for those yonder hills in the background, never to return again, and now he's alone in his unfathomable mystery, while they are up in arms, even outraged over his intention, to simply leave them.

But at the same time, they cannot really understand him fully, or the depths of his intentionality and weigh it as to it's righteousness, but here they are certainly drawing their own conclusions about it, and what it's implication is, mostly for themselves (they've left Jesus right out of the conversation by now).

This is the realization which settles over the whole painting, which isn't even ABOUT the desciples EITHER, no - it's those rolling hills in the distance, beconing, a bell waiting to be rung (even a Marriage Bell)!

Can you imagine?

reply to post by NewAgeMan

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I am vaguely familiar with the painting, but not being visual, I'll play along for the fun of it without going to other sited to see clearer depictions.

I could not help but count the hands. That was the first thing I did after wondering why the figures were layered in such clothing. The fellow in blue at the center seems to have a disembodied hand.

The woman next to Jesus is the one holding the knife, but for some reason, the fellow who is whispering in her ear has grabbed her knife hand at the wrist and placed it behind himself on the table. Did he really think she was the betrayer perhaps, since the church has always denigrated women? She was about to cut the bread, or whatever is in her other hand, but is this the joke? It's as though he is preventing her from doing something foolish? Yet her other hand is holding what appears to be bread, or maybe it's cheese. And what the heck is in the plate beneath the knife? Yuck. The smallish man in blue next to the woman seems out of proportion and too small compared to the rest of the men. IMO there could be 2 women in the painting, but if just one, there is someone missing, there are 2 men missing IF the disciples were all men. Who was absent, Peter? And who else?

They seem to be eating from fine pewter and drinking milk from glasses, although there seems to be a couple of glasses of wine perhaps. So where is the holy grail? Is this the joke? I can't make out what lies beyond the window or any details on the wall hangings except those on the left side are not symetrically placed as the ones on the right. The first beige picture on the left looks like a drawing of a house, but in your OP, you referred to a church steeple or bell tower. But maybe the joke is really that they sat on only one side of the table in order to pose for the photograph as the old school joke goes. OK, I'm done. You can laugh at me now and I'll probably join you.

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