This work was inspired by the famous painting “The Last Supper” from Leonardo Da Vinci. I followed a lot from Da Vinci’s work but added some from my own interpretation.
The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray Him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. I focus my attention on Jesus, Judas and Peter, so the main changes I did from the original was with those three.
But let’s see what’s going on; From left to right:
The first apostles form a group of three, all are surprised.
The second group of three is where Judas is. He is the only one facing the backs to Jesus. Peter is in this group too, and looks angry and suspicious. He has picked the knife on the table near to him to have all the control in that weapon. If some one will try to reach the knife he will get it first not letting anyone to use it. But he doesn’t believe that someone from the group could betray Jesus. The most probable situation would come from someone in the outside, so he his looking at you.
The next group of three. One is clearly upset; another looks stunned, with his arms wide open. Meanwhile, one of the apostles appears to be requesting some explanation.
The final group of three. Two of them are turned toward Simon, perhaps to find out if he has any answer to their initial questions.
Jesus is at centre with both hands turned upside receiving the Divine light over Him. All of the angles in the composition and light draw attention to Christ.
The number 3, which is an allusion to the Holy Trinity, is the main key to this work. All the composition and light setup is based in a triangle with focus on Jesus; and the shape of Christ's figure resembles a triangle too. The Apostles are forming groups of three. There are three objects on the table representing the Holy Grail (A cup for the wine, a plate for the bread and a knife to divide the bread). There are 3 sited apostles on the right side of Jesus and another 3 sited on the left side. If you count the number of not closed fingers in the hands you’ll find 72 fingers which is multiple of 3. Tree apostles in the left side and other 3 in the right are wearing black. Three have their faces hidden. There are 3 tattoo skulls. And so on...
There are a lot more references to the number 3 in this work. I purposely created some but at the end I could find 18 references which is a multiple of 3. I'm sorry that 640px doesn't make justice to all the details in this photograph.
Light setup:
Canon 580EX (right) + Canon 430EX (back) + Sigma 500 DG Super (Left)
Three light sources in a triangular position ;)
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