{"id":33434,"date":"2021-09-02T15:13:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=33434"},"modified":"2021-09-02T15:13:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:13:20","slug":"theres-something-about-mary-magdalene","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/theres-something-about-mary-magdalene\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s Something About Mary (Magdalene)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Last Supper Mural At the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan (Credit: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Convent of Santa Maria\u00a0delle\u00a0Grazie\u00a0in Milan, the devoted come to gaze upon the divine.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Here, in this 15<\/span>th<\/span>-century church in Italy\u2019s bustling second city, is the crowning glory of mankind\u2019s greatest artist.\u00a0<\/span>The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>, Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s depiction of Christ\u2019s final meal with his apostles, covers the entire end wall of the convent\u2019s dining hall. The mural is huge\u2014fully 29 by 15 feet\u2014and, despite its fame and familiarity, remains breathtaking, even 520 years after the master first painted it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>On a recent trip to Milan, I was invited to view<\/span>\u00a0The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>. I knew it to be one of the most admired, most studied, and most reproduced paintings the world has ever known. But I had reckless abandon for one of the world\u2019s most iconic paintings. To be invited, albeit for a\u00a015-minute\u00a0private viewing, was a\u00a0rarified\u00a0chance to appreciate Leonardo\u00a0da Vinci and\u00a0<\/span>The Last Suppe<\/span><\/i>r: only\u00a0five\u00a0people are allowed to view the masterpiece at a time, and it is booked out for at least two months in advance.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But like any journalist, I was also aware of the painting\u2019s pervasive mythology and the clues\u00a0da Vinci\u2019s brushstrokes allegedly created to provide evidence in a cover-up of the\u00a0true identity\u00a0of Christ by the Roman Catholic Church.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Today,\u00a0<\/span>The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0looks in arguably better shape than at any time in its long and turbulent history. It has survived occupations by invading armies, bombing by the Allies during the war, and numerous botched attempts at restoration from as early as the 18<\/span>th\u00a0<\/span>century, until eventually, in 1999, Leonardo\u2019s masterpiece was lovingly restored to the condition the artist intended.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>It also remains, perhaps as the artist also intended, the center of controversy, speculation, and bitter arguments between scholars, historians,\u00a0theologians,\u00a0and conspiracy theorists.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is not simply a painting of Jesus and his disciples eating together one final time\u2014it captures the defining crisis of their union, the precise moment Christ told his friends: \u201cTruly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.\u201d It is loaded with drama, tension, and symbolism.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Each of Jesus\u2019\u00a0twelve closest followers reacts differently. To his left, James is outraged, throwing his arms in the air, while Thomas, raising his finger, appears to be demanding an explanation,\u00a0and Philip leans closer as if he can\u2019t believe what he has heard. Behind them, Matthew and Jude Thaddeus are the only two with their back to Christ, as they look to Simon for answers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>On Jesus\u2019\u00a0right, at the far end of the table, Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Andrew appear to be giving what we might call a \u201cdouble take\u201d at the news, while in front of them, Peter has grabbed a knife and seems\u00a0ready to physically protest, while Judas, the disciple who would betray Christ, holds a purse, and has knocked over a salt cellar\u2014a punning nod by Leonardo to the Middle\u00a0Eastern expression \u201cbetraying the salt,\u201d\u00a0meaning to turn on one\u2019s master.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Which leaves only one figure\u2014the most interesting depiction in the painting, and certainly the most controversial.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Immediately to Jesus\u2019 right \u2013 where one might expect to find Saint Peter, the de facto head of the 12\u00a0apostles and, in Christ\u2019s own words, \u201cthe rock upon which I will build my church\u201d\u2014is a swooning, long-haired, androgynous figure, whose downcast eyes and expression of ineffable sadness mirror that of Jesus himself. Officially, this is Saint John, the youngest apostle, and commonly referred to (in his own Gospel,\u00a0at least) as \u201cthe disciple who Jesus loved.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But is this delicate, mournful figure really Saint John?\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For many scholars, the person Leonardo sat at Jesus\u2019\u00a0right hand was not John, or indeed any other man\u2026 but rather Mary Magdalene, one of Christ\u2019s few female followers and the only one of his disciples who would be present at both his crucifixion and burial, as well as being the first to witness his resurrection. She\u2014and not John\u2014was the disciple who Jesus loved.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>All of which raises the question:\u00a0Why would Leonardo not only include her in his masterpiece, but\u00a0also\u00a0place her\u00a0at\u00a0the most exalted position at the table?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most modern viewers of\u00a0<\/span>The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0will know Mary Magdalene from her role in Dan Brown\u2019s 2003 novel,\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0Da\u00a0Vinci Code<\/span><\/i>, which not only claims the figure in the painting to be her, but\u00a0also\u00a0goes on to suggest that she and Jesus had a sexual relationship.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But Mary was already a central\u2014and controversial\u2014figure in the Christian church when Leonardo toiled in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria\u00a0delle\u00a0Grazie, 500 years before Dan Brown wrote his best\u00a0seller.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>She is mentioned more in the four \u201ccanonical\u201d gospels (Matthew, Mark,\u00a0Luke,\u00a0and John) than any woman other than Jesus\u2019\u00a0mother, and more often than most of the other apostles. In the Gospel of John, she alone is the first to see the risen Christ \u2013 and is sent by Jesus to tell the other apostles of his resurrection, giving her the status of \u201capostle of the apostles.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She is also a central figure in the later \u201cGnostic\u201d Gospels, ancient Christian texts discovered in Egypt in 1945, in which she is repeatedly referred to as Jesus\u2019\u00a0closest and most beloved disciple and \u201cthe one who best understood his teachings.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It is these Gnostic Gospels that give added weight to the suggestion that Leonardo deliberately placed Mary, not John, at the right hand of the savior.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The second-century Gnostic Gospel of Philip contains repeated references to Mary as Jesus\u2019\u00a0partner or companion, with one passage even claiming: \u201cAnd the companion of the savior [was] Mary Magdalene. [Christ] loved Mary more than all the\u00a0disciples, and\u00a0used to kiss her often on the mouth.\u201d<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Gnostic text, the fifth-century Gospel of Mary (so named because it is about Mary, not because she was the author) not only seems to confirm this unusual closeness, but\u00a0also\u00a0reaffirms Mary\u2019s importance within the Church, with one verse relating an incident where Peter seeks her advice. \u201cSister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman,\u201d he says. \u201cTell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Those same Gnostic Gospels include other references to Peter feeling jealous,\u00a0resentful,\u00a0and even angry with Mary\u2019s favored position in the eyes of Jesus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Leonardo would have been\u00a0well aware\u00a0of Mary Magdalene as an important figure in early Christianity\u2014perhaps even the most important, after Christ himself. But he would also have known of her as a hugely divisive influence. The Church\u2019s attitude to women was hardly progressive at the best of times, but in the sixth century, Pope Gregory I\u2014perhaps reflecting Saint Peter\u2019s own jealousy\u2014falsely declared Mary to have been a prostitute. It was a slur that lasted nearly 1,400 years until finally being corrected in 1969\u2014and it was only five years ago, in 2016, that Pope Francis allowed her to be referred to as the \u201capostle of the apostles,\u201d\u00a0for her role in witnessing the resurrection.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether, as Dan Brown\u2019s novel claims, Jesus and Mary Magdalene\u2019s unusually close relationship culminated in marriage, and even children, remains unproven. But, given that Leonardo was also an exceptional scholar and that Mary was patron of the Dominican\u00a0Order for whom the mural was painted in the first place, it is by no means unthinkable that, whether out of theological precocity, loyalty to the order who commissioned him, or just plain mischief, he would include her in his depiction of the apostles\u2019 moment of crisis\u2026 and that, of them all, the \u201cone who best understood\u201d Jesus\u2019\u00a0teachings\u00a0should be the only one among them not to react with fear, shock, or disbelief.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is not just artistically and aesthetically breathtaking, the towering masterpiece of the Renaissance era,\u00a0and the greatest achievement of the world\u2019s greatest artist; it is, like all Leonardo\u2019s works, an example of his dazzling, and playful, intellect.\u00a0<\/span>From the hidden musical score formed by the positions of the apostles\u2019 hands and loaves of bread across the table\u2014which, with typical virtuosity, has to be read from the viewpoint of Jesus, or right to left as we look at it, to make sense\u2014to the myriad signposts and hidden meanings inherent in his depiction of each of the apostles (Peter\u2019s knife symbolizing his later\u00a0anger in Gethsemane, Thomas\u2019\u00a0raised finger foreshadowing his doubt of the resurrection, Judas\u2019\u00a0purse and spilled salt), part of the enduring genius of\u00a0<\/span>The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is its seemingly endless capacity to surprise, intrigue, and inspire debate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five centuries after he first painted his masterpiece,\u00a0<\/span>The Last Supper<\/span><\/i>\u00a0still holds one final, unanswered question that strikes to the very heart of the Christian\u00a0Church.\u00a0<\/span>Who really was the \u201cdisciple who Jesus loved\u201d? And could his portrayal of the demure, feminine figure at Jesus\u2019\u00a0right hand, deliberately depicted as different to the other apostles, be Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s greatest trick of all?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28404,"featured_media":33435,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"\nThere\u2019s Something About Mary (Magdalene) - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the Convent of Santa Maria\u00a0delle\u00a0Grazie\u00a0in Milan, the devoted come to gaze upon the divine.\u00a0Here, in this 15th-century church in Italy\u2019s bustling second city, is the crowning glory of mankind\u2019s greatest artist.\u00a0The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s depiction of Christ\u2019s final meal with his apostles, covers...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/theres-something-about-mary-magdalene\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There\u2019s Something About Mary (Magdalene)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the Convent of Santa Maria\u00a0delle\u00a0Grazie\u00a0in Milan, the devoted come to gaze upon the divine.\u00a0Here, in this 15th-century church in Italy\u2019s bustling second city, is the crowning glory of mankind\u2019s greatest artist.\u00a0The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s depiction of Christ\u2019s final meal with his apostles, covers...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/theres-something-about-mary-magdalene\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1301422982.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/theres-something-about-mary-magdalene\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/theres-something-about-mary-magdalene\/\",\"name\":\"There\u2019s Something About Mary (Magdalene) - 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