The Last Supper & Da Vinci

Last Supper


Is the figure seated on Jesus’s left in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper a man or a woman? Dan Brown was researching the subject matter in his Da Vinci Code. Read the review by Suzanna Pillay to know more.

The Da Vinci Code explored
By SUZANNA PILLAY

National Geographic picks up the trail of the Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code, in some intriguing clues from Israel to France and Scotland. Is the ‘Code’ based on fact?

It’s a controversial point, but is the figure seated on Jesus’ left in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper a man or a woman?

Best-selling author Dan Brown believes that it is the latter and in fact went on to pen an international bestseller The Da Vinci Code on the very topic.

If you’ve read Brown’s book and wondered where on earth he got his ideas from, the National Geographic’s two-hour special, Unlocking Da Vinci’s Code: The Full Story explores the credibility of Brown’s claims. Spoiler alert!

If you’re intending to read the book don’t read ahead. Brown believes that the figure is that of Mary Magdalene and that she was married to Jesus, eventually bore him a child and started a dynasty that passed the bloodline of Jesus down through the centuries.

He also believes the remains of Mary Magdalene and a set of documents which recorded the true story of Jesus is the real Holy Grail, and not as believed the chalice from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper.

His book even pinpoints the present location of the Holy Grail to a secret chamber beneath the Pyramid Inversee’ (upside-down pyramid) in front of the Louvre.

Brown certainly gave the world food for thought about the origins of Christianity, but how accurate is he with the facts?

Following a trail of clues from Jerusalem to Paris, through the villages of southern France and up to Scotland, the documentary which will be shown on July 1 and July 8 is an eye-opener.

Unlocking Da Vinci’s Code delves into the Gnostic Gospels, codices that tell alternative versions of early Christian beliefs. Unearthed in Upper Egypt’s Nag Hammadi in 1945, they date back to 350 AD.

Brown uses them in his book to justify his point that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, but did he misinterpret the Gnostic Gospels?

The two-hour special also delves into the Priory of Sion, a society later called the Knights Templar which carried the secret that the descendants of Jesus still walked among us.

Leonardo Da Vinci was rumoured to belong to this society and to have planted cryptic clues about the real Holy Grail in his paintings. But did the Priory of Sion really exist or was it all an elaborate hoax?

The National Geographic special also searches for possible descendants of Christ in France and Scotland. Facts which support the legend of French descendants are stories connected to a small coastal town in France called Les Saintes Maries de la Mer which cherishes the tradition of Saint Sara, the Egyptian servant girl of Mary Magdalene.

In 44 AD she reportedly accompanied Mary Magdalene, Lazarus and Mary Jacobe, sister or cousin to Virgin Mary, to this coastal town (which was named after the Marys) after fleeing by sea from persecution in the Holy Land.

But was Sarah really Mary Magdalene’s daughter? Or are Christ’s descendants the Saint Clair family in Edinburgh?

Much of the speculation is fuelled by Rosslyn Chapel built by William St Claire in 1446, which has been frequently pinpointed as a likely location for the Holy Grail.

Is this based on fact and where is the grail now? Tune in to National Geographic to find out for yourself.