It’s that Easter season among western Christian sects; this is Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus’s final entry into Jerusalem and the events leading Jesus’s crucifixion.
Our congregation will stage a “living” Last Supper a la da Vinci, which got me to thinking about the painting, which reminded me of this post from years ago; some minor updating, and I’ve added a new version I found from ABC’s series, “Lost,” which was in the middle of its run when I posted this originally in 2008:
Jeremy Barker at Popped Culture assembled more than 30 versions of contemporary recastings of DaVinci’s painting of “The Last Supper.” There’s the Simpsons version, the cartoon version with Disney and Warner Bros. characters. There’s the Sopranos version, and the Battlestar Galactica version.
For example, the Robert Altman version, from M*A*S*H:
Last Supper, M*A*S*H style
If you need a 20 minute lesson on the influence of Renaissance art on contemporary art, this is one many high school kids may find interesting, if not amazingly historically informative. I suspect there is a great lesson plan hiding in there about 20th century history as reflected in parody art.
It’s a brilliant and subtle demonstration of the power of DaVinci’s art that there are so many copy cat pictures, don’t you think?
I did notice, however, that Barker left out the Mel Brooks version, from “History of the World, Part I.” It may not fit the meme.
“Last Supper” as portrayed in Mel Brooks’s “History of the World, Part I”
Finally, looking today I found this “Lost” version of the Last Supper at Art is Everywhere, showing the meme is live and well.
“Lost” Last Supper; probably a publicity still, found at Art is Everywhere.
Do you have favorite parodies or homages of the Last Supper left off of these lists of 31 different versions? By all means, list them in comments, with links if you have them.
Resources:
- LastSuppers, a blog dedicated to parodies of DaVinci’s painting
- ABC News story, featuring the painting
- Malaspina site, with DaVinci’s painting before restoration, and a lot of other art — a good tour of Renaissance art all by itself.
- More on the painting, from another blog
- Wikipedia entry — notice especially Tintorretto’s version
- Wikipedia on DaVinci
- Museum of Science (Boston) exhibit on DaVinci
- Wikimedia Commons version of DaVinci’s work
Resources added in 2013:
- Not Da Vinci’s last supper! (christineeeeeeeeeeeeeee.wordpress.com)
- Are there secret messages in da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’? (illuminutti.com)
- 55 pop culture parodies of the painting at BuzzFeed from January 2013 (warning, many of these are aimed to offend)
- Know Your Meme’s take on the parodies
- Tired of this yet? 24 versions (most you’ve seen by now) at Urlesque
- 50 Last Supper parodies at Awesomer
- Bit Rebel has 17 parodies, including Charlie Brown and Popeye versions
- (Added October 6, 2013) 34 versions at La boite verte
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
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Well, we know what has been done with Dogs Playing Poker…one of the great works of art. I wonder if there is one of Jesus and the Disciples.
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THere’s probably a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings version somewhere.
And a Harry Potter version
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