Holy Grail Found in Da Vinci’s Last Supper
Status: True (in my opinion)
Here's a bit of a mystery. I received an email from someone called Prastil who wrote, "Check this hoax out: DaVinciGrail.com." The site he directed me to claims that the holy grail has finally been discovered in Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper. For centuries people have wondered why Da Vinci omitted the grail from his painting, given that the grail is one of the central elements of the Last Supper story. Its absence has spawned a variety of theories, such as the one elaborated in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, that the holy grail was Mary Magdalene's uterus (and that the figure to the left of Jesus in the painting is Mary Magdalene). But DaVinciGrail.com claims that Da Vinci actually did include the grail in his painting, if you look hard enough. He concealed it as a symbol on the wall above the head of St. Bartholomew, the disciple at the extreme left. (I highlighted the cup in the image below).It may seem a bit farfetched that after centuries someone discovered a detail in the Last Supper that no one had ever seen before, but as far as I can tell, that's the case. The man who noticed the grail in the painting was Gary Phillips, a Michigan computer programmer (and cryptologist). He was aided in his discovery by the fact that the painting was recently cleaned, revealing details previously concealed by dirt and grime. Of course, Phillips could be seeing a shape that was not intentionally placed there by Da Vinci, but once you see the cup, it seems so obvious that it's hard to believe it wasn't placed there on purpose. The legitimacy of Phillips's claim to have discovered this hidden detail is noted on a number of sites, such as About.com's Art History blog.
Now here's where things get strange. Phillips has nothing to do with DaVinciGrail.com. Instead, Phillips maintains a separate site called Realm of Twelve. DaVinciGrail.com is registered to (drumroll, please) Prastil, the same guy who emailed me telling me that the site was a hoax. Why did Prastil claim his site was a hoax? Was he trying to get me to write about his site, not thinking that I would check the domain registration? I have no idea (and I wrote about it anyway). But Phillips's discovery of the grail hidden as a symbol on the wall in The Last Supper seems real enough to me... unless there's some part of the story that I'm not clued in to. (Very possible.)
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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Have a look at the original painting (search Google images). It's clearly a fake.
Posted by Ciaran on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 08:38 PM
I did do a google image search. But you've got to make sure that a) you're looking at the restored version of the last supper (you can't see it in the unrestored version); and b) you're looking at da vinci's last supper, and not one of the many copies of it. The cup is there.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 09:19 PM
Maybe the restorers put it in as a joke? It's very subtle, and definitely not visible on the unrestored version (although the unrestored version is so badly deteriorated you can't make out a lot of the finer details).
Posted by Smerk in to mischief on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 09:40 PM
I thought it was a fake at first too, so I tried to find some other, more trustworthy images to check against. The image is certainly there in the restored. However, if you go to the enlarged image available at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/The_Last_Supper_Da_Vinci.jpg it loses its definition as a chalice. Perhaps this is an intended illusion by da Vinci or perhaps it isn't a chalice at all.
Posted by Dean in Ithaca, NY on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 09:42 PM
So THAT'S where Jesus left his beer stein!
Posted by 8 on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 03:01 AM
...I always thought people looked into these things too much. Maybe in all of DaVinci's "genius", he just liked to paint, and forgot about that specific detail. Why would it be such a big deal that one of the details revealed in scripture is missing from the picture? DaVinci was not a priest or a theologian, I doubt he would have just forgotten that the cup existed, but maybe it wasn't what he wanted people to focus on.
Posted by Maegan in Tampa, FL - USA on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 03:15 AM
In the same vain, I have found at least two other Holy Grails in the Last Supper the last hour. One befittingly is in the hands of Jesus, the other in those of Judas:
and:
Posted by LaMa in Europe on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 03:48 AM
and:
Oops: that last one should've been:
Posted by LaMa in Europe on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 03:49 AM
Here is the original.....and it CAN be seen....
Posted by X in McKinney, TX on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 05:05 AM
There are plenty of little cups on the table. Why couldn't one of those be the grail?
Posted by Accipiter in the Northern Hemisphere, unless They have lied. on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 05:24 AM
Accipiter makes a good point. Also, that thing on the wall is not supposed to be the grail. If DaVinci wanted people to see the grail there, it would be subtle and beautiful. What we see there now is clumsily grail-shaped, sort of.
Posted by Matt on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 05:35 AM
maybe it was in the kitchen getting washed at this point during the supper. or maybe it fell on the floor...
or maybe it was getting washed because it fell on the floor.
Posted by thephrog in CA USA on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 06:48 AM
or maybe it was getting washed because it fell on the floor.
The restored painting does not show a grail. Only half of the supposed grail is there, the right side is missing. Even if the design showed bilateral symmetry it would still be a reach to claim it's a grail symbol.
I agree with Accipiter. The grail was simply the vessel that Christ used at the last supper. There's no reason to believe that it would be anything other than an ordinary cup. Didn't anyone see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
I don't think it's a hoax so much as wishful thinking.
Posted by Charybdis in Hell on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 07:10 AM
I agree with Accipiter. The grail was simply the vessel that Christ used at the last supper. There's no reason to believe that it would be anything other than an ordinary cup. Didn't anyone see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
I don't think it's a hoax so much as wishful thinking.
I'm still inclined to think that Da Vinci intended to put a grail there, because artists like him never do anything by accident. Plus, it's not something subtle. It's really obvious, once it's pointed out.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 07:22 AM
If I am not mistaken, the painting depicts the point of the Last Supper where Jesus tells everyone that one of them will betray him the next day, hence most of the disciples look agahast and why Judas is the only one leaning away from Jesus, etc. etc. This point of the Last Supper was before the breaking of the flesh-bread and shedding of the blood-wine for eucharist. It could be that Jesus just hasn't had the grail brought to him yet.
Posted by Dean in Ithaca, NY on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 10:55 AM
Don't you people know? Mary Magdalene is the real Holy Grail, as Leonardo da Vinci was hired by the Priory of Sion AND the Illuminati along with other famous genius' to make these kind of clues to distract people so they could plot together to create a new world order!
Posted by Yaanu on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 05:22 PM
Was that sarcasm, Yaanu? 'Cause I really hope it was...
Posted by Snowy in aeternum on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 05:43 PM
Somehow this reminds me of Percival Lowell's canals on Mars: The human brain tends to make patterns where no pattern objectively exist; we're just hardwired that way.
Posted by eovti in Sandefjord, Norway on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 01:54 AM
...or discovering the face of the Holy Virgin on a sandwich, or seeing Satan in the smoke billowing from the WTC.
Posted by eovti in Sandefjord, Norway on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 02:00 AM
I did a google search, and found this photo where you can zoom in really close (If you had the whole picture at this resolution, it would be over 5 screens wide and 4 screens tall!). It gives this resolution by adding detail as you zoom it, like Google Maps.
http://milano.arounder.com/category/fullscreen/IT000005356.html
It turns out to be a vaguely-grail-shaped piece of detail on the pillar (or whatever it is) behind him.
Posted by Simon Richard Clarkstone in England on Sat Oct 01, 2005 at 09:31 AM
http://milano.arounder.com/category/fullscreen/IT000005356.html
It turns out to be a vaguely-grail-shaped piece of detail on the pillar (or whatever it is) behind him.
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