The Last Supper

Coming out of the Easter celebrations, our attention is drawn to the Last Supper, the most painted supper in history. Without detracting from the religious significance of the event, food historians often use such art representations as a visual document to explore developments and identities associated food and table setup.

The aphorism we are what we eat is beautifully represented in the Peruvian Marco Zapata’s representation of the eighteenth-century painting of the Last Supper in the Cathedral of Cuzco where the lamb is substituted with a guinea pig.

If we are what our icons eat, one would wonder what a modern Last Supper painting would look like. Some years ago, this question was controversially answered in Malta when a local company used a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s celebrated painting as a marketing tool. We all might have an opinion about this, clearly a reflection of how food can be far-reaching.