Sunday, July 29, 2007

Lost Images Found in Da Vinci's "Last Supper"


A new theory that Leonardo's "Last Supper" might hide within it a depiction of Christ blessing the bread and wine has triggered so much interest that Web sites connected to the picture have repeatedly crashed.

The famous fresco is already the focus of mythical speculation after author Dan Brown based his "The Da Vinci Code" book around the painting, arguing in the novel that Jesus married his follower, Mary Magdelene, and fathered a child.

Now Slavisa Pesci, an information technologist, pool cleaner and amateur scholar, says superimposing the "Last Supper" with its mirror-image throws up another picture containing a figure that looks like a Templar knight and another holding a small baby.

"I came across it by accident, from some of the details you can infer that we are not talking about chance but about a precise calculation," Pesci told journalists when he unveiled the theory earlier this week.

Pesci has also found other images in the painting, including one that looks eerily similar to the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Another seems to depict the Geico lizard whispering in Jesus Christ’s ear, possibly attempting to persuade him to consider switching insurance carriers.

Websites www.leonardodavinci.tv, www.codicedavinci.tv, www.cenacolo.biz and www.leonardo2007.com had 15 million hits on Thursday morning alone, organizers said, adding they were trying to provide a more powerful server for the sites.

In the superimposed version, a figure on Christ's left appears to be cradling a baby in its arms, Pesci said, but he made no suggestion this could be Christ's child. It is implied here that somebody in His entourage may have been earning extra cash by baby sitting part-time.

Judas, whose imminent betrayal of Christ is the force breaking the right-hand line of the original fresco, appears in an empty space on the left in the reverse image version. This suggests that Judas was two-faced and/or had a twin brother.

And Pesci also suggests that the superimposed version shows a goblet before Christ and illustrates when Christ blessed bread and wine at a supper with his disciples for the first Eucharist. The goblet seems to contain ice as well, offering us a clue that Christ could have possibly been a big fan of wine coolers.

(Some of this article is fictional and for entertainment purposes only. Portions were taken from msn.com and aol.com)

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