Mysteries and Secrets
Have you read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? If you have then you’ll be delighted to see the painting at the heart of it all and to see its mysteries up close. Most famously, Dan Brown’s novel (and some art historians) speculates that the disciple usually designated as John is really a woman, Mary Magdalene. The figure has a feminine face, similar to the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s later work, but if it is a depiction of Mary Magdalene then it means the scene is missing a disciple. The painting also contains several objects laid out in threes: the windows behind the table and the disciples are clustered in groups of three. Three is a sacred number in Christianity, representing the Holy Trinity and Christian art often features repeating threes in reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.