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 Da Vinci 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 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 Christ."
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 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.
No
matter how much we feign and put on the act our appearnce betray us. It clearly
shows what we are and not what we try to show to the world.
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