Totally coincidental arrangement, honest...
"Okay, everyone who wants to be in the picture, go to the other side of the table. Hold it..."
— Leonardo, History of the World Part I
Imitating Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper, often for promotional art. This works for a variety of different plots or events. If there is a character who is an example (or a subversion, or an ironic inversion) of a Messianic Archetype, or otherwise has some kind of plot-related parallel with the story of the betrayal of Christ, he or she will be placed in Jesus' position, frequently complete with downcast eyes and spread arms. The scene itself often has some thematic connection to the biblical Last Supper, whether it is a group shot of the series' team with a betrayer in their midst, or a gathering of friends that is a metaphorical "last supper" (like a group of coworkers planning to go their separate ways), a leader and their followers or supporters, or foreshadowing the death/persecution of the character in Jesus's spot.
Since Leonardo's painting depicts the disciples' reactions to hearing that one of them will betray Jesus, the character placed in the "Judas Iscariot" slot (elbow on the table, second to the viewer's left from Jesus) may be a hint to viewers.
While less common, the choices for "Peter" (behind Judas), "John" (first to the viewer's left from Jesus), "Thomas the Doubter" (in the background to viewer's right from Jesus, index finger raised) or "Simon the Zealot" (right end of table) may also hint at something about the character placed in that slot.
This is actually Truth in Television; artists have made quite a few versions of The Last Supper, many of which have been viewed by the public as in bad taste (or worse). Technically, this is not "stealing" in any legal way as Leonardo's works are in the public domain worldwide.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- The first ED for Food Wars! portrays the Polar Star dormitory like this, with a very determined Soma in the Jesus spot.
- Golden Kamuy: In chapter #81 Sugimoto's group and Hijikata's group area eating a meal together, drawn as a Last Supper Homage. There is a lot to unpack here. Is Asirpa the Messianic Archetype or something closer to the actual Messiah (except for Ainu)? The Judas Iscariot-Peter-John triad throws up some thoroughly spoilerific and somewhat uncomfortable suggestions. Oh, and four of the participants are taxidermied men who've had the skin flayed off their torsos and upper arms.
- In the manga adaptation of Haruhi Suzumiya, the S.O.S. Brigade ends their Drunken Montage during Remote Island Syndrome with this. Itsuki is John, Mikuru is Thomas, Kyon is James the Greater, and Yuki is Philip. Judas's face, as well as most of Peter's, is blocked by text. And Haruhi? Guess.
- This
◊ piece of promotional art for the second season of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
Arts
- The Actors Bistrot (sic), a restaurant in Florence, has or had a mural of The Last Supper recast with old movie stars, with Marilyn Monroe in the center.
- Salvador Dalí's painting "The Sacrament of the Last Supper" borrows several elements from Leonardo's composition, recasting them with Surrealist imagery to strike a more mystical tone.
- Mary Beth Edelson's painting "Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper (1972)" collages over the heads of Christ and the Apostles with the faces of notable women artists and feminist leaders.
- One of the illustrations for Ul de Rico's The Rainbow Goblins is a Last Supper pose, though with two rather large differences: 1) there are only seven of them and 2) there is no theme of betrayal— instead, they're scheming on how to catch and devour their next rainbow.
- Andy Warhol was commissioned to make a set of nearly 100 paintings and prints based on the Last Supper, transforming the painting in various ways with his distinctive pop art style. Some are recolored, some are turned into line art, some are overlaid with corporate sponsorship logos, some are reconstructed from newspaper clippings... Some art historians have argued that they are Warhol's response to the AIDS crisis, although they also no doubt reflect a devotional element from his Ruthenian Catholic faith. It turned out to be the last work he completed before his death.
- A mural at the infamous Heart Attack Grill spoofs the Last Supper◊, replacing Jesus with the restaurant's founder, Jon Basso, and the Twelve Apostles with several fast food restaurant mascots including having Ronald McDonald take the place of Judas.
Comedy
- The cover of George Carlin's book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
- The Palmashow sketch "Quand on est apôtre" is a comedic retelling of the Last Supper, ending with Leonardo da Vinci showing up to paint Jesus and the Apostles.
- Trevor Turan's Discworld spoof lecture on The Da Quirm Code (Discworld Convention, 2006) involved supposed hidden messages in Leonard of Quirm's portrait of the Ecksian prophet of Offler Gordon Yermate and his followers, titled Where the Hell's Breakfast?
- The cover of Sam Kinison's third (last released while he was alive) album, Leader of the Banned.
Comic Books
- One issue of Countdown to Final Crisis has the Justice League in this pose while rejecting Jimmy Olsen's application for membership. Really for no reason, other than presumably looking cool.◊
- The Great Power of Chninkel: A panel in the fourth chapter represents the chinkels impersonating The Last Supper from Leonardo da Vinci.
- In issue #13 of Ghostbusters (IDW Comics), Janosz Poha has painted The Last Supper, but all the faces are Ray Stanz's. Janosz admits he doesn't know Ray but remembers what he did.
- One issue of Legion of Super-Heroes arranges the Legion of Super-Villains in such a manner, with Lightning Lord taking the center seat.
- Supergod has this as one of its final issue's covers. Have a look.◊
- Second Coming: When Satan gathers his own Legion of Doom, they are all together on a table similar to The Last Supper.
- The wraparound Variant Cover of Über: Invasion #16, in which Maria resurrects and goes full Messianic Archetype, did this with Maria as Jesus and the second-generation USSR supers as her disciples. Deceptive Disciple Olesya, who tried to kill her on Stalin's orders in the previous issue, is in the Judas Iscariot spot.
Comic Strips
- Frazz: The 2001/04/08 Sunday strip has Frazz paint the cafeteria with elementary school-themed parodies of several famous works. The Last Supper parody has the principal in the place of Jesus.
Fan Works
- Bill McConkey's 80s Movie Classics Last Supper
- Dragon Age: Inquisition already referenced it in promotional material, but one enterprising fan went the extra mile.
- Justice League version here.◊
- In-universe in The Maretian: After contact with Earth is reestablished, one piece of fan art is clearly inspired by The Last Supper. Naturally, defictionalized with some actual fan-art.
The shot panned from left to right, showing first the five Ares III crew members on Hermes in various poses; then, in the center, Mark Watney, looking wryly amused but not particularly holy; then the five alien castaways; and finally, in the position of Judas, a Roman centurion fingering a bloody sword and wearing a most unpleasant smile.
- Pokémon version here.◊
- In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Story of Arceus, Malzena creates a Last Supper scene◊ in-universe, probably having seen the painting in Avery's human memories.
- It's cosplay, but here's Sailor Scouts Supper.
- Star Wars: The Last Supper.
- World of Warcraft Last Supper.
Films — Live-Action
- Many film dramatizations of the life of Jesus will stage a Last Supper scene that looks like Leonardo. Done in one scene from Jesus Christ Superstar. There's another live-action staging of the painting in the 1951 version of Quo Vadis. The 1925 version of Ben-Hur does this as well, but since Jesus is The Faceless in that movie, there's another guest posed directly in front of him.
- In Alien: Covenant, there's a small photograph in the ship's galley of the full Covenant crew standing around a table in this fashion.
- Death in Brunswick: After his domineering mother suffers a stroke and is left a quadriplegic, Carl marries Sophie, despite her father's protests and the final scene from their wedding is reminiscent of the Last Supper.
- In The Dirty Dozen, the Dozen have a victory feast to celebrate humiliating Colonel Breed in the war games before they go out on their official mission. The table layout fits this trope. Magot was sitting in Judas' spot.
- Satirical short film Fatherland has Joseph Stalin somehow coming back to life in 2016 in his hometown of Gori. The townspeople hold a ceremonial dinner in which they are posed like this with Stalin as Jesus. This is Foreshadowing of the ending in which the townspeople crucify Stalin, their Messianic Archetype.
- A poster for The Expendables 2 uses it.◊
- Highlander: Endgame used this with the Big Bad and his posse-at the end of the scene, he proceeds to behead them all to gain all their power.
- In Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I, Jesus and Pals commission Leonardo Da Vinci to make a group portrait. They pose for a second exactly as in the painting, and Brooks holds up a plate over Christ's head as the halo. Even if there's no halo in the actual painting.
- A stoner pizza party in Inherent Vice is framed to look like The Last Supper, with Owen Wilson's Coy Harlingen, an innocent party victimized by events, in the center.
- In the film version of M*A*S*H, the "funeral" for Painless Pole has the attendees arranged in this manner. Father Mulcahy sees this and does a double-take.
- The 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express has all the suspects seated this way when Poirot arrives for the Summation Gathering.
- Paradise Now: Said and Khaled are two young Palestinians, members of a militant cell, who are being prepared by their handlers to go on a suicide bombing the next day. After they've been prepped, getting haircuts and shaves and three-piece suits to look more like Israelis, they sit down to dinner with their handlers. They're at a long table, Last Supper style, with Said and Khaled, the two who are to be sacrificed, in the middle.
- One segment in Super Size Me is a painting that shows grotesque caricatures of various fast food mascots set up like The Last Supper.
- The Theatre Bizarre: "Sweets" ends with a shot of the cannibals at the banquet arrayed around the table with Greg's body positioned like the Last Supper, with Estelle in Jesus position.
- Luis Buñuel's Viridiana has a party of drunken, looting beggars end posed as in The Last Supper, causing an outcry from the Vatican.
- In the intro to Zack Snyder's Watchmen film, the Minutemen are set up to resemble The Last Supper when they celebrate Sally Jupiter's retirement. Since it's Sally's party, she's in the Jesus position. The Comedian is in the position of John (popularly mistaken for Mary Magdalene), which might be a hint to who's been involved with the visibly-pregnant Sally. What's more, Sally's husband is in the position of Thomas (finger raised and angrily demanding an explanation).
Literature
- A Fable: As part of the whole Messianic Archetype package. Cpl. Stefan, a WWI soldier who is basically the reincarnation of Jesus, is in a prison cell along with his 12 disciples, awaiting execution for inciting regiments in the French army to stop fighting. The night before the corporal is supposed to be shot, a long mess-table is brought in and they all have a nice dinner.
Live-Action TV
- The promotional images for the sixth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. included a Last Supper-esque image with a doppelganger of Coulson as Judas and other easter eggs.
- The page image is promotional art for the last season of Battlestar Galactica. It even contains Foreshadowing, as the person who Word of God says would be occupying the obvious empty space (Ellen Tigh) turns out to be important.
- Community used this arrangement in the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples", with Abed as Jesus.
- A promotional photo◊ of House season 4. House is naturally Jesus, a position he'd agree with given his ego.
- House of the Dragon: The behind the scenes video confirms that the show's creators self-consciously based the visual setup of Viserys's final dinner with his entire family in Episode 8 of Season 1 on The Last Supper.
- The season 3 finale of Killjoys opens with a banquet scene, which includes a shot◊ that's a clear imitation of the painting, right down to the hand gestures.
- Used in promotional material for the last season of Lost. Combine that with As the Good Book Says...: Entertainment Weekly Issue #1186 (January 22, 2010) says of the image that "The castaways' imbibing evokes the Bible verse: 'If the dead are not raised: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die' [1 Corinthians 15:32b; Isaiah 22:13d, NAB]. Which is exactly what was at stake with last season's resurrection-or-bust Jughead cliffhanger."
- One episode of Murdoch Mysteries has a murderer posing their victims as characters from the Last Supper. Specifically, those among the apostles who had betrayed Jesus.
- In an episode of Northern Exposure Chris finds himself in one of these in a Dream Sequence.
- In The Office (US) episode "Garden Party", Jim tricks Dwight into doing a live Tableau during a picnic, so Dwight of course picks The Last Supper to imitate so he can take the role of Jesus.
- On the final shot of the Once Upon a Time (2011) season six finale "The Final Battle Part 2", the various protagonists (the Charmings, the Golds, Regina, Zelena, Emma, Hook, Henry, and Granny) gathering for dinner at Granny's on a long-table, all of them facing the same way à la Last Supper set silent to the series theme.
- In the 4th episode of the 4th season of the HBO show Oz , Augustus' narrates over a Tableau of the main cast posed as the disciples. Starting from the left, we have: Augustus as Bartholomew, Poet as James, son of Alphaeus, Morales as Andrew, Hoyt as Judas, Rebadow as Peter, Schillinger as John, the O'Reily brothers as Thomas and James the Greater respectively, Adebisi as Philip, Keller as Matthew, Beecher as Jude and Saïd as Simon.
- Done in an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, with Penn as Jesus as he goes around the table, killing the apostles representing the myths of organic farming.
- In the final season of Search Party, Dory and her disciples imitate The Last Supper during their meal at the hippies' house, with Dory playing the role of Jesus. This is also their last supper before the zombie apocalypse.
- The dinner scene at the end of the first series' Christmas special of Shameless (UK).
- At one point in Spin City, Michael J. Fox's character finds that a former mentor of his (played by Christopher Lloyd) believes he's the Messiah. Late in the episode, he walks into a meeting room to find that most of the higher-ups are at a table with said crazy mentor, forming a Last Supper with him as Jesus.
- In the That '70s Show episode "Streaking", after Eric agrees to streak at a Gerald Ford rally with his friends, he informs the rest of the group that nobody can find out since "If my father finds out what we've planned, he will nail me to the wall," at which point a heavenly glow seems to hit the table and everyone is frozen in a Last Supper pose with Eric as Christ.
Jackie: (walking by) Why are you all sitting on one side of the table?
- The X-Files: In "Requiem", a very improbable group of characters appear behind one table at the FBI, discussing very pressing matters of alien abductions. There are of course agents Mulder and Scully, their boss Skinner, conspiracy theorists Lone Gunmen, Mulder's former Mysterious Informant Marita Covarrubias, and triple-agent Alex Krycek.
Music
- Eve: In the Animated Music Video for "How to Eat Life", the line "sitting at the table with everyone was all I ever wanted" is visualized with a bunch of figures (from previous music videos) with blackened, darkened faces sitting at a table in the same positions as The Last Supper.
- INXS' 1993 single The Gift has a cover art◊ inspired by The Last Supper, with a shirtless Michael Hutchence in Jesus' position.
- Linkin Park's video for "Iridescent" features the band seated at the table with Mike Shinoda at the center.
- The Pretty Reckless video for "Miss Nothing" features this, with Taylor Momsen playing a Mary Magdalene figure.
- The music video for 19 días y 500 noches, by Spanish singer and composer Joaquín Sabina, invokes this at the very beginning, and the rest of the video consists of him and his friends singing and dancing around the table.
Radio
- The cover of The Clue Bible, the tie-in book to long-running series I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, casts long-time presenter Humphrey Lyttleton in the Jesus role, with the cast regulars surrounding him as the Apostles.
Stand-Up Comedy
- In Robin Williams's stand-up special Live On Broadway, while he discussed Jesus and the Bible:
Robin: And if he was Jewish, and many of his disciples were Jewish, for the Last Supper, would they not have gone out for Chinese? I think so. (in Chinese accent) "Welcome to Yahweh. Hold on, no sandal, no service, okay, you can come in now. Hold on, you have twelve. All I got is two tables of six right now. They're not together... Wait a minute, I got one big table by the window, but you all have to face this way. All right. You are glowing, so I guess we don't need that lamp, that's very nice! And you've just turned a Szechuan chicken into a live chicken, you're very good!"
Tabletop Games
- Aberrant used this in an illustration depicting the meeting of the Teragen, a faction of A God Am I mutants.
- Cyberpunk Red includes a drawing of the MegaCorp CEOs in this style, lined up at a press conference table. Though there's not much plot relevance; the CEOs are not a team nor trust each other in the slightest. Perhaps it's meant to symbolize the deification of the rich.
Theatre
- The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) has a replica of the painting with cutouts for the heads of twelve disciples. The cutouts come with labels naming the disciples, which helps because there are only two actors to play them and because audiences might not otherwise recognize disciples such as St. Louis (as in the city on the Mississippi river) or St. Bernard (who is prophesied by Jesus to "become a large dog that saves skiers in the Alps").
- Many productions of Jesus Christ Superstar do this with the characters.
- There's a live play called The Living Last Supper that has thirteen actors, each one playing a character from the supper, each delivering a soliloquy before saying "Is it I?" and assuming their position from the original painting.
Video Games
- The image for the Renaissance district of Criminal Case: Travel in Time shows Leonardo da Vinci painting the Last Supper with members of the T.I.M.E. Squad as each disciplenote . Marina is Bartholomew, Janis is James the Lesser, Penelope is Andrew, Nebet is Judas, Jack is John, Amy takes the position of Jesus, Theo holds the place of Thomas, Zara the place of James the Greater, Kai taking Philip's place, and Orlando taking on Matthew's role. Nebet's place as Judas is also a taste of Foreshadowing, as it turns out she is working against the Temporal Crimes Division in order to tamper with history and put the Ptolemy Dynasty in charge of the world.
- Cyberpunk 2077: During the quest "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", the protagonist is traveling with gangster-turned-Christian-zealot Joshua and his two monitors, and you all stop at a restaurant... which just happens to sport a long, thin table that Joshua sits at the middle of.
- Promotional art for Dragon Age: Inquisition depicts the Inquisitor, with their nine companions and three advisors surrounding them at the table. Solas stands in Judas' spot in the original painting, foreshadowing The Reveal about his true identity.
- Some Far Cry 5 promotional art features 13 doomsday cultists (and a dog) sat along a table, reminiscent of the painting.
- The TGS 2023 promotional banner of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has the cast seated together in Hawaii with different variants of who is in place of where Judas would be: Jo Sawashiro, Eric Tomizawa, Chitose Fujinomiya, Eiji Mitamura or Masataka Ebina.
- Maldita Castilla's True Final Boss features a Satanic mockery of the painting's imagery. The demon Luzfarel is found sitting at a table with his demonic lackeys all on the same side of the table. Given that this level is literally Hell, this should surprise nobody.
- In Fujin's Arcade Ending in Mortal Kombat 11, the last screen shows various friends and foes sitting at the table, with Fujin at the center. Take a wild guess which spot Shang Tsung takes up.
- In Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, there's a secret room where you find statues of Razorbeard (a villain from Rayman 2) and his Robopirates seated at a large table.
- In A Week That Changed the World (1986), an educational Apple ][ game in The Baker Street Kids series based on The Bible, the titular kids enact The Last Supper in a school play◊, with Jamie (center) in the role of Jesus, Chip in the bottom-right corner as St. Peter, and some boy in the bottom-left corner as Judas Iscariot.
Web Animation
- The ending of the pilot episode of The Amazing Digital Circus features a shot of the cast all sitting down at a dinner table in this manor as it slowly zooms in on Pomni, who's in the position of Jesus.
- hololive - Holo no Graffiti: The 2021 Christmas episode has a bunch of the hololive idols participate in a quiz game with Sora hosting before ending the day with a company-provided dinner of soba noodles for everyone. Sora takes one bite from her bowl and immediately spits it out because the broth that it was supposed to have been served in had been replaced by barley tea. The scene then transitions to a mock-up of the painting with Sora, as the first idol character of the entire company and thus considered the dai-senpai of every idol in the agency, in the middle as Jesus while the other idols present take up various positions on either side of her in place of each of the Twelve as accusations and denials over who did it fly. Notably, the one in Judas' spot is Shion, who can be seen earlier in the episode walking around with a bottle of barley tea in her hand while the other idols were putting away the quiz show equipment.
Webcomics
- The Dark Lord's Confession has a double panel with the Dark Lord and her disciples re-enacting the painting. The thirteenth disciple is in the same position as Judas and holds a sword behind her back, signifying her eventual betrayal.
- Ennui GO!: The 5th panel of this comic has the characters take this pose when one of the engines of their plane catches fire.
- A scene in the grand "Temple Crashers 2" arc of Housepets! shows the ferrets and Breel taking on the classic Leonardo pose. Obviously, the angel, Breel, is in the Jesus position, but Keene, his Earthly love interest, is in the Judas position.
- Little Nuns In the August 16, 2021 drawing has the nuns re-enacting the The Last Supper with Clumsy Nun as Jesus. The positions don't have any special meaning... except that, of course, Froggy Nun is Judas.
- Prezleek Comics has The Last Supper of the Fifth Age.
- Done in the last panel of this Sister Claire comic. Co-creator Yamino lampshades it in her notes, commenting that the nuns all ran to Claire's side of the table because they always wanted to pose like that.
Web Video
- The final episode of Smosh Pit's series Eat It or Yeet It had all of the cast members at a long table meant to resemble the painting, with Cordon Bleugh Chef Garrett as Jesus. Shayne, who was in Judas's seat, got fed a cup of watery coffee grounds while everyone else got regular coffee, as revenge for Shayne not coming to Garrett's poetry retreat.
Western Animation
- The DVD cover of 12 oz. Mouse uses fan art of the characters arranged as in The Last Supper.
- A particularly gruesome version happens on Season 8 of Archer, where Barry kills a bunch of people violently, then stages their corpses to look like the Last Supper - with a tied-up Len Trexler in the role of Jesus.
- Happened on the Dilbert series, where they thought Wally was God.
- This was used at the end of the season 16 The Simpsons episode "Thank God It's Doomsday" (where Homer discovers a mathematical equation connected with the end of the world and is sent to Heaven to stop God from carrying out His plan). After Homer discovers that his trip to Heaven was real and Moe's isn't a Japanese restaurant anymore, Homer sits in the center of a group of drunks and the picture freezes to a Last Supper-style painting.
- South Park:
- In the episode "Margaritaville", Kyle says he has "this feeling that one of you will totally betray me", and everyone gasps and freezes into Last Supper position. No prizes for guessing that Cartman's seated in the Judas position, though funnily enough, this picture is missing a Peter, probably because Stan is tied up in the B-plot.
- In "Fantastic Easter Special", which mimics Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Professor Teabag shows Stan and Kyle a portrait of The Last Supper, which looks the same, except that there is a colored egg next to St. Peter, whom Teabag reveals to be a rabbit.