The Last Supper

Size: Height X Length
Inches: 81 X 180
Cms: 206 X 457

Meduim: Oil Enamel on Canvas

Circa: 1982 – 1987

The Last supper
The Creator perspective
The apostles have just heard from Christ himself that one among them is going to betray him. Each reacts according to his nature and temperament. St James faints, St Thomas looks skeptical, St Peter looks serious and the rest – confused and disbelieving. We can see the state of mind and an inner struggle for each apostle in the patterns and lines of the paintings. The unaffected among them is Christ himself. He is now beyond all emotions. In fact, he has already left.

The Last Supper
That supper
The Creator perspective

There are infinite perceptions:
As I pondered On the Divine Perception
I employed the single point perspective for the painting that talks about the propounder of the one god-The Creator.
The total focus is on the Centre.
It is the Emanation and the Attainment, and I call it The Creator Perspective.
Remember, O reader, It was thus at that moment.

Have I been made to understand? What truth is?
Or have I felt it? What I have been made to understand.

-Bharat Dalal

Description of the Painting :

“The Last Supper”, a painting by Bharat Dalal, is an extraordinary creation of Renaissance art. He had imagined and been extremely successful in expressing the desire that had entered the minds of the twelve Apostles at that moment. Those apostles were shocked to know that one of them will be betraying Christ. Bharat Dalal has amazingly captured the facial expression of each of the apostles that can be visualized as indignation, fear, love, or grief for not understanding the meaning of what Christ said. This moment was the most important characteristic of the painting to be depicted and expressed through the eyes, the mind, heart, and personalities of the characters. The artist had depicted in a simple composition the posture, gesture, and expression of the twelve apostles that manifested their mental status at that moment.

Renaissance art was an ideal art to represent the human truth without any distortion or aversion to religion. Bharat Dalal had a very strong faith in science and he created this masterpiece using the unique pictorial technique to impart a crystal-clear message. The painting is so marvelous that it captures simultaneously the historical moment of betrayal by an Apostle and the initiation of the timeless ritual of the sacrifice by Christ in a sense that is the central mystery of reincarnation. The layering of meaning and feelings characterized by this painting is a simultaneous merging of the level of narration about the betrayal and the level of symbolism about the institution of the Eucharist. Christ resigned and left the place, leaving behind a great serenity and tranquility of mind among the twelve agitated Apostles – an awareness that is somehow divine in the hands of mankind.

This painting “The Last Supper” is a masterpiece and shows Bharat Dalal’s extraordinary caliber and genius character. He realized that there are no lines in nature – nature does not create a line but the human mind imposes them and our mind manipulates the perceptions noticed by the sensory organs. If viewers look closely at this painting, they will find the superimposition and overlapping of the figures creating the formation of a line, but on the canvas, it is only the intermingling of the figures. This illustrates that there is no demarcation in time; one moment constantly overlaps with the other moment and hence the empirical nature is overlapped by the spiritual nature at the cognitive level of individuals. This painting embodies the assumptions or beliefs of the human being in the culture and society they are created. It also emphasizes the various possible challenges and alternative interpretations of the traditional and modern views by the analyzers and scholars in the Art Field. The artist has portrayed all figures in this painting in such a way as to show the natural appearances up to the extent that they survive physically and socially in distinctive artistic culture. It also seems that portraying The Last Supper in this way will influence the changes of modern trends to the nature of society, issues of races, genders, and the boundaries of modern culture itself.

The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci:

The painting “The Last Supper” by Bharat Dalal is based on one of the world’s most famous paintings, “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci. In the painting by Leonardo, Christ says to his 12 apostles “one of you will betray me”. These apostles are Christ’s closest followers and so these words were terribly shocking and each apostle reacted differently around the table. Leonardo had captured that moment when the reaction took place. Christ was reaching towards a glass of wine and towards the bread. Christ says, “Take this bread, for this, is my body”. “Take this wine, for this, is my blood, and remember me.” And he reaches out toward the bread and the wine. But what’s interesting is that Christ’s hand is widely spread. It seems as if he is reaching towards the wine, but at the same time, he is reaching toward a bowl. And at the same moment, Judas is reaching towards that same bowl. Judas is the one who is going to betray Christ. And that’s one of the ways that Christ identifies who will betray him, the person who shares, who dips with him in that bowl.

Leonardo tells us several moments in this painting, and at the same time, gives us a sense of the divine, eternal importance of this painting. The figures themselves are monumental in this space, and too crowded for that table, creating a kind of energy, a kind of chaos, that surrounds the perfection, the solemnity, and the geometry of Christ in an Equilateral Triangular Form. Leonardo, who had mastery over many subjects like Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Architecture, Philosophy, Sculpture, and Painting, had drawn this painting with the integration of all these. He made the center very calm (The Christ) and other figures of apostles with their faults, different emotions and reactions, fears, worries, betrayal, and protection around the divine center. The Table shown in the picture is very large and separates Christ and the Apostles from the rest of the world.

Bharat Dalal, who was also having strong command over Science, Engineering, Philosophy, Spirituality, and Painting (Art), integrated all these in the painting of “The Last Supper”. He gave a new dimension to the painting by showing that Christ had left and captured that moment showing all the emotions of the apostles. The absence of Christ is also the presence of his spirit.

The Background and Superimposition of the figures:

The background of the painting “The Last Supper” by Bharat Dalal was the depiction of a sort of battleground for different spiritual dogmas and approaches towards life. The emptiness and three windows behind the table expressed the continuous tension between possession and renounce, between exclusivity and inclusivity, and this tension would remain a lively issue for human beings for many centuries to define the adaptation. This painting had depicted the extent of the survival of adaptation of the cultures physically and socially and the extent to which the traditional values can be reconciled with the modern values. The Depiction of the last supper by Bharat Dalal has a very recognizable but inherent meaning in radical ways that pursue the social agendas or spiritual objectives in a highly reverent manner, and it is beyond the assumption of underlying fundamental issues of religion, race, and any human boundaries.

The division of 12 apostles in a group of four (Each group has three apostles) and the superimposition of the figures presented symmetrically by Bharat Dalal had cogent and significant meaning and it clearly indicated the dexterity of the artist to portray a renaissance art innovatively. The figures without clarity of face defined artistic expressionism to establish the tangibility of the Abstract and the intangibility of the Realistic characteristic of the depth of the knowledge and power of an individual. Leonardo da Vinci had used the Sfumato or Smoking Technique that was unparalleled and showed his intellect, his passion, and his level of perfection. Bharat Dalal had defined an innovative technique and tried to bridge the gap between the desire for perfection and the Actualization of this desire through the superimposition of the figures.

Technique and Colors :

The Artist Bharat Dalal’s technique is unique and cannot be replicated easily. One of the most intriguing features of his art was the technique. He hung the blank canvases from the ceiling with the help of pulleys. With sheer skill, he would cover the negative spaces around the required portion and drop the desired color on it. Unlike most artists, he let the force of gravity define the flow of the paint, allowing the hues to naturally adopt the pattern. He also used a long-lasting exterior paint to make sure that the painting would last for years to come and the marbleized effect would never deteriorate. It was because of his precision that his collection falls under the one-of-a-kind category.

Bharat Dalal had used the primary colors Red, Blue, and Yellow with the secondary colors such as Mauve-Blue, Violet-Orange, Violet, Black and White, and Green, keeping in mind the complexities of the representations of different emotions as well as the sensibilities of Renaissance art. These colors were used to re-express and redefine the Artistic Freedom to depict the Philosophical dictates, materialistic expressions, metaphysical spirituality, and conscious and subconscious intentions through the images of this painting.

Merging Science & Art :

Bharat Dalal had merged Science and Art impeccably in his painting “The Last Supper”. This correlation of artistic and scientific creativity shows the psychological profile, polymath tendency, and mental strategy of Bharat Dalal. He portrayed the five centuries of human quest in a mechanical form and explained the darker side of human characteristics through “The Last Supper”. His intense curiosity and learning through self-study of diverse scientific fields including Architecture, Carpentry, Human Anatomy, Astronomy, Engineering, and merging the science with Art such as Music, Poetry, and Painting (Fine Art) had reincarnated the Renaissance Master LDV in the twentieth century. His focus on Science and scientific studies and his perspective to understand the world around him as well as elevating the level of inner self had created a masterpiece with uniqueness and innovation that mesmerizes the viewers. By combining the theological issues related to good nature and evil nature with the human characteristics and demeaning behavior, he had created an evocative and unparalleled piece of art that will stay in the Art world for a very long time and will touch on issues of life and death, religious belief or disbelief, death and reincarnation, faithfulness and betrayal, and empirical nature and spiritual nature.

Perceptions to Pure Perceptions & the Evolution of Geometrical perspectives – IV (four) The maturing of the three preceding fundamental linear analyses culminates into the first complete original perception, the creator perception. The creator’s perception translates into the single point, the geometric perspective. We are left in no doubt as to where all the lines converge or emerge. [at the center point] However, one must remember that all the lines are running parallel, and parallel lines do not meet. The viewer is subtly reminded of this by the distant horizontal patch of water. The marbleized veins, the geometrical lines of the two opposite walls, the ceilings, the flooring, converging at the center, go on to emphasize the first geometrical perspective. The propounder of this perspective is even more forcefully represented by his absence. The propounder becomes the perception becomes the perspective. This perspective by its special virtue draws the viewer in. This is demonstrated by the bold red lines in the illustration.

Artist’s Perspective :

The Artist Bharat Dalal had employed the single-point perspective, focused on the center, and that perspective was The Creator Perspective in his painting “The Last Supper” that was leading towards the infinite perceptions of Emanation and the Attainment. He was immensely interested in depicting the body to reveal the soul and to reveal one’s internal nature. The Christ had left the center, but his divine presence was still there, and the artist had drawn the perspective lines from different directions to represent the conversation of each apostle’s inner self with the external spiritual source. So, he divided the Twelve apostles into a group of four, each group having three apostles, and overlapped or superimposed them with one another to create the emotional responses of all these figures differently. That idea of unified composition centering towards the divinity of the Creator was the perspective of Bharat Dalal to elevate the characteristics of Renaissance Art. This perspective was searching vigorously for a sense of eternity, a sense of perfection, a unity of the earthly and the divine, and depicting the human experience and behavior in the chaos.

Writer’s Perspective :

Bharat Dalal was an Artist of Indian origin whose areas of interest included painting, innovation, drawing, science, music, mathematics, philosophy, literature, spiritualism, and Jainism. His Last Supper is the Creator’s Perspective. Christ had left the scene and had given full privilege to his apostles to surrender before spiritualism. This painting has a much deeper philosophical and psychological meaning that was buttressed by the manuscript of the artist Bharat Dalal. He left the viewers to analyze the painting from all perspectives and to bridge the gap of self-actualization and realization of the desire up to the degree of spiritual nature. The uniqueness of the style of Bharat Dalal shows his unlimited desire for knowledge and the application of creativity to every aspect of life through the representation of his painting “The Last Supper”. He used his superb intellect merged with the power of observations, the inquisitive and persistent mind, and mastery of the Art Drawing to study the Spiritual nature.

This painting required not only the utmost concentration but also the research of some new ways of expression by the artist, Bharat Dalal, who deliberately refused to study classical art and created his own technique in his paintings. This is where the art offered its unique path, the space for the research of new meanings, the practice of an inner dialogue with his spiritual source, and an attempt to give his own answer to global questions. Undoubtedly, this freedom and his own art style helped him in the creation of this painting “The Last Supper,” and it was a mere coincidence that his visionary masterpiece had a religious theme, which would be interpreted in many ways.