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In the Last Supper, most people seem to be clear, but there has been controversy about who the nearest person next to Jesus is. The reason for this is that the man on the right hand side of Jesus has long flowing hair and a beautiful face, like a woman.
However, among the twelve disciples who participated in the Last Supper, there did not seem to be such a person. Logically, this seat should be sat by St. John. But why does St. John look like a woman?
The Last Supper Part: St. John
Therefore, some scholars have put forward bold assumptions: where is like a woman, this is obviously a woman. They felt that this was not St. John at all, but Mary Magdalene, an idea that Dan Brown wrote into his famous novel The Da Vinci Code and was widely circulated.
But this view is highly controversial in academia. According to the Gospel of Mark in the Bible, Mary Magdalene was possessed by the devil and later met Jesus, who healed her.
She has since believed in Jesus and has become an extremely committed disciple of Jesus. When Jesus ascended to the cross, Mary Magdalene followed Jesus and watched him suffer and even be buried. At the time of Jesus' resurrection, Mary Magdalene was also the first to see Jesus.
From all of the above, it can be seen that Mary Magdalene was indeed not an ordinary person, and therefore some scholars argue that she was actually the wife of Jesus, and that Jesus loved her more than other disciples. If this is true, it is indeed possible that she is sitting next to Jesus.
However, this inference has not yet been widely accepted by scholars, and the Gospels of Mary and Philip that they cite are considered "apocryphal".
Moreover, if this is the case, it means that there was no St. John at the Last Supper, which is really unjustifiable. For according to the Gospel of John, the one on the side of Jesus was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and since the 2nd century A.D., the church has considered this "beloved disciple" to be St. John.
On the other hand, St. John is handsome and beautiful like a woman, but it is also well documented. In the 2nd century AD, a series of writings by false saints that were not recognized by the church were popular. Collectively, they are known as the Apocrypha of the New Testament.
One of them, called the Book of John, is about the deeds of St. John that are not recorded in the Bible. The Biography of John portrays St. John as "young and beardless." Although the Church does not recognize it, this set of writings is well respected among the faithful. Another supporting person in the painting is evidence from a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci during the creation of The Last Supper.
The Last Supper, leonardo da Vinci, circa 1492, Accademia Gallery, Venice
Da Vinci drew this sketch with his left hand, starting from the upper right corner of the entire sheet of paper to the left. When the middle paper is not enough, start another line and continue to push to the left from the lower right corner. So, adjust the whole painting, it should look like this in Da Vinci's mind.
The Last Supper Study (Puzzle Version)
The painting still uses a more traditional Last Supper composition, in which the good guy sits in a row and the bad guy Judas sits alone. This sketch depicts the moment jesus handed the bread to Judas. In fact, the composition presented in this painting is rather stiff, not quite like da Vinci's handwriting.
Although inconclusive, many scholars have concluded that da Vinci's sketch is copied from another fresco of the Last Supper in the Franciscan convent of Sant'Angelo Franciscans, created in the late 14th to early 15th centuries and destroyed in 1551, the fragment of which is now in the church of the town of Brione in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. If this statement is to be confirmed in the future, then it follows that the grief-stricken man lying on the table on the left side of Jesus is None other than Mary Magdalene.
As for why St. John looks particularly like a woman in da Vinci's paintings, perhaps because he really used a female model when creating it, this has not yet been verified.
However, many of da Vinci's works do not place special emphasis on gender characteristics, whether it is the Mona Lisa or St. John's. The reason is that da Vinci felt that the ideal of beauty is definitely not limited to men or women. And da Vinci believed in a tone similar to "born of the heart", then the appearance of St. John should also be similar to his personality.
In addition, there is another reason, that is, as mentioned earlier, the Last Supper has been severely damaged by wind and frost. If we can see the way he is, we may think that he is not so much like a woman.
leonardoresearch.com this website attempts to restore The Last Supper, and although they do not represent the consensus of the academic community, we can also refer to what Da Vinci's St. John might look like after intensive restoration.
Restoration of St. John's head