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Posted by Art Freak on November 03, 19103 at 17:13:11:
In Reply to: da Vinci's "The Last Supper" posted by Edward Lopez on September 02, 19103 at 02:22:52:
You have to stand in front of the painting to appreciate most of what I am going to explain to you but if you get a good photo of the original then you might be able to tell. Remember that the posters have been retouched and often don't show what you what the one on the wall shows you.
The hand with the knife is that of the figure with gray hair and who's head is leaning in and is almost touching that of the feminine figure that is on Jesus' right hand side.
Most of the pictures you see do not show this part of the painting very well however, you can recreate this by simply sitting at your table with a knife in your hand. Sit at your table about a foot away from it. Hold the knife in your right hand as if you are about to er some bread. Now place your hand with knife on the table so that the thumb is closest to the ceiling. Now lean your entire body left and as you do so lift your right elbow up. Keep the knife hand over the table top and raise the elbow until it the hand is a few inches above the table.
You will see that your wrist will bend back and that your forearm will come almost directly out towards anyone who would be sitting opposite of you. This is called foreshortening and is seen in many paintings. The figure would be doing this because he does not want to drop the knife and does not want to remove the hand with the knife from the table as that would not be appropriate. You never place your utensils in your lap.
If you look closely at the painting you will see a patch of yellow just off of the dark haired man's right shoulder. This is the yellow sleeve of the man who is holding the knife. He is wearing a blue robe over a yellow undershirt. You can see that he has on a yellow undershirt because his left hand also has a yellow sleeve and can be seen on the shoulder of the feminine looking figure.
The hand with the knife is often thought to have a brown sleeve but upon closer examination you can clearly see the begining of the yellow sleeve and that the brown part is the foreshortened forearm of the gray haired man. The knife is also not pointing at the dark haired figure in front who is supposedly Judas but is pointing away from him.
There are a total of 25 hands in this painting including the knife hand.
I speculate their was an intention on Da Vinci's part to include the 26th hand that would have been the left hand of the "pointed finger" figure but perhaps with the numerous restorations and repaintings the figures hand was just incorporated into that of the robe of the other figure.
I hope this helps someone.