The Da Vinci Code and the Last Supper Free Essays

When it comes to world-famous paintings, Leonardo Dad Vine’s â€Å"Last Supper† is always on the top of the list. What is it that, even now, 500 years after its creation in 1498, makes â€Å"Last Supper† such a mysterious and conspiracy-laden painting? First, there is a level of mystery surrounding its creator, Leonardo Dad Vinci. Not only was Dad Vinci an influential painter, he was also an engineer, sculptor, designer, and scientist. We will write a custom essay sample on The Da Vinci Code and the Last Supper or any similar topic only for you Order Now His ingenious concepts in many subjects and technological inventions were so advanced for the 14th to 1 5th century technology that even some 20th-century inventors, like he Wright brothers, pulled from his work. There have been a lot of theories on Dad Vine’s life and on his paintings and it is believed that â€Å"Last Supper† contained hidden messages, which Dad Vinci encoded in the painting himself. This essay will examine what these theories are and how they are counter argued by scholars and art historians. Although there have been many fiction novels about Dad Vine’s â€Å"Last Supper†, Dan Brown’s novel The Dad Vinci Code, published in 2004, garnered an enormous amount of support from the world wide readers. It brought up a huge scandal on Jesus that, e and Mary Magdalene were lovers and in fact there was a child (or children) between them. In the novel, a secret group, â€Å"Prior of Soon,† protects the descendants of Jesus until today. Dad Vinci, as a member of â€Å"Prior of Soon†, was aware of the truth about Jesus and Mary so he encoded this secret in â€Å"Last Supper† to send out the message . â€Å"The Dad Vinci Code† changed some of its readers’ beliefs toward their religion, but scholars say this novel is merely based on fiction. In the words of Renaissance art expert Elizabeth Pillion, â€Å"†¦ It is severely flawed. As a reader of fiction, I think it is a tremendously entertaining view’ . The Dad Vinci Code† says that, in Dad Vine’s â€Å"Last Supper†, the figure sitting on the right side of Jesus is obviously a female person; the figure does not have a beard like rest of the disciples and the figure’s hand is placed closest to Jesus’ right hand, suggesting that the two are physically close. Scholars argue that there have been a lot of paintings on the subject of the Last Supper, and it had been common to depict John next to Jesus and beardless. Disco did Boniness’s â€Å"Last Supper† from the early 14th century portrayed John in similar ways. In Disco’s â€Å"Last Supper,† John is sitting on the left side of Jesus, beardless and leaning on Jesus. Domenici Grandchild’s version of â€Å"Last Supper† also has the same description of John, in which he is sitting on the left side of Jesus, leaning on the shoulders. Why do John’s illustrations share these similarities, when all these paintings were created over a century apart from each other? The Bible has all the answers. John is known to as Jesus’ most beloved disciple; in fact, the Bible specifically refers to John as â€Å"the disciple, the one whom Jesus loved†¦ [John 20:2;], and this phrase appears our times throughout the Gospel of John . The Bible describes the scene at the Last Supper with specific details of the position of John and Jesus; â€Å"It is the Beloved Disciple who, while reclining beside Jesus at the Last Supper, asks Jesus, after being requested by Peter to do so, who it is that will betray him† [Joh n 13:23-25]. Both Disco and Garlanding were absolutely correct in terms of the position of Jesus and John according to the Bible and the appearance of John is also similar in both paintings. These three painters’ versions of â€Å"Last Supper† are not the only paintings n the same subject; in fact, the earliest depiction of the last supper occurs in the frescos of the Catacomb of Rome from the 6th century . There were some conventions created when many painters drew the â€Å"Last Supper† over the centuries, and Leonardo Dad Vinci was simply following these conventions in accordance with both the Bible and earlier â€Å"Last Supper† depictions created by other painters. Dan Brown’s â€Å"the Dad Vinci Code† disregarded the facts about these traditions, yet described Leonardo â€Å"Last Supper† as if everything started from it; therefore, the readers are biased with this faulty concept. Another argument made by Dan Brown has to do with SST. Peter, who is sitting next to the female figure. The novel’s interpretation of SST. Peter is that he was against the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene; therefore, he was illustrated showing a sign of execution on the female figure’s neck, and he is holding a knife with his right hand as a threat. The author says that Dad Vinci wouldn’t have drawn these features unless they meant something, but scholars argue differently. Iconography is one of the characteristics of Renaissance arts, which includes symbolism in the paintings . Pewter’s holding a knife at the Last Supper is actually a Christian symbol, foreseeing of the event followed by the Last Supper. In Disco’s painting, it is observed that there are a lot of knives present on the table. Although Peter is not holding a knife in this painting, the knives serve as symbolism. It is more obvious in Grandchild’s â€Å"Last Supper,† in which Peter is actually holding a knife in his right hand. Contrary to Dan Brown’s explanation, it does not look like Peter is threatening someone else. The reference to Pewter’s knife appears in the Bible. When Judas showed up with soldiers to arrest Jesus, Peter fought back and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, named Mulches [John 18:10]. By illustrating Peter with a knife in his hand, it serves as foreshadowing of a future event. It is wrong to say that, because Peter is holding a knife in the painting, it has a meaning of threatening other person, but it serves as a symbolism off future event. What appears to be Pewter’s showing an execution gesture on John’s neck is, in fact, a misinterpretation made by â€Å"the Dad Vinci Code†. As discussed above, the Bible has some specific details on the ignitions of Peter and John. â€Å"It is the Beloved Disciple who, while reclining beside Jesus at the Last Supper, asks Jesus, after being requested by Peter to do so, who it is that will betray him† [John 13:23-25]. Leonardo Dad Vine’s â€Å"Last Supper† is describing the scene of Pewter’s requesting John to ask Jesus. Dan Brown’s explanation of the gesture of Peter is misleading for its readers; therefore, it is only a fictional setting and it should not be taken seriously. Dan Brown was very clever to use Leonardo Dad Vinci as the theme of the book, and he fact that everyone loves to believe a worldwide conspiracy made â€Å"the Dad Vinci Code† very successful fiction novel. It is remarkable how a novel can have so much impact on the worldwide reader’s views, even on religion, although this particular example shows how dangerous in can be. The readers who do not have much knowledge in art history or religious history can easily be biased with these fictional interpretations mentioned above. When reading these kinds of novels, it is the reader’s responsibility to be open-minded and seek the truth themselves instead of being fully influenced by the author. How to cite The Da Vinci Code and the Last Supper, Papers

Wings of fire free essay sample

Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam (1999) is an autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam,[1] former President of India. It was written by Dr. Kalam[2] and Arun Tiwari. [3] Kalam examines his early life, effort, hardship, fortitude, luck and chance that eventually led him to lead Indian space research, nuclear and missile programs. Kalam started his career, after graduating from Aerospace engineering at MIT (Chennai), India, at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and was assigned to build a hovercraft prototype. Later he moved to ISRO and helped establish the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and pioneered the first space launch-vehicle program. During the 1990s and early 2000, Kalam moved to the DRDO to lead the Indian nuclear weapons program, with particular successes in thermonuclear weapons development culminating in the operation Smiling Buddha and an ICBM Agni (missile). Wings of Fire unfolds the story of A P J Abdul Kalam from his childhood in the following seven sections: Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Orientation Creation Propitiation Contemplation Epilogue Creation Section Creation traverses seven chapters, from chapters four to chapter ten; and covers Kalams life and work for 17 years, from the year 1963 until 1980. We will write a custom essay sample on Wings of fire or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It begins with his recollection of works at the Langley Research Center, NASA, in Houston, Virginia,U. S. , and at other facilities in the USA, including the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast of the United States, Virginia. At a NASA facility, he remembers to have seen a painting, prominently displayed in the lobby. The painting depicted a battle scene with rocket flying in the background. On closer examination, he found that the painting depicted Tipu Sultan’s army fighting the British. Kalam felt happy to see an Indian glorified in NASA as a hero of rocketry warfare. His association with Thumba and Satellite Launch Vehicle and related projects are vividly presented in the section Creation. During the period covered under Creation, Kalam, in the year 1976, lost his father who lived up to 102 years of age. Kalam took the bereavement with courage and remembered these words written on the death of William Butler Yeats by his friend Auden, and his father: Earth receive an honoured guest; William Yeats is laid to rest: In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. The period covered in the section Creation also brought Kalam national recognition. A pleasant surprise came in the form of conferment of Padma Bhushan on the Republic Day,1981. Propitiation Section Propitiation covers the period 1981 to 1991, and contains five chapters, from chapter 10 to chapter 14. This section covers the scientist’s journey towards becoming the â€Å"Missile Man of India†. In this section, his excellent leadership qualities as taking up the responsibility of shaping up the Guided Missile Development Program, are clearly visible. In this phase of the life, Kalam was responsible for the development of the five missiles – Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and the most awaited one Agni Pictures The book has 24 plates with photographs associated with the life and work of Kalam: Ramanathapuram, from where Kalam had completed his high schooling. Plate 8 shows his teachers at Schwartz High School. Plate 9 shows Nandi, an indigenous hovercraft prototype. Plate 10 shows the picture of a Church in Thumba, a place which was donated by the local Christian community to the India’s Space Research Centre. Plate 11 shows him with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. Plate 12 shows an SLV-3 review meeting. Plate 13 shows presentation of members of SLV-3 team. Plate 14 is the first plate with a colour photograph and shows Prof. Brahm Prakash inspecting SLV-3 in its final stage on integration, and plate 16 shows a colour photograph of SLV-3 on the launch pad. Plate 15 shows him with Prof. Satish Dhawan and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Plate 16 shows SLV-3 launch. Plate 17 shows him receiving Padma Bhushan. Plates 18 shows successful launch of Prithvi, now a part of India’s surface-to-surface weapons system. Plate 19 shows Kalam standing by the side of Agni, standing on its launch pad. Plate 20 shows a cartoon by renowned cartoonist R. K. Laxman. Plate 21 shows another cartoon on the failure of Agni Missile. Plate 22 shows him after successful launch of Agni Missile. Plate 23 shows Kalam receiving the Bharat Ratna from the President, K. R. Narayanan.

William Goldings Lord Of The Flies Essays (645 words) -

William Golding's Lord Of The Flies In a group of people there are always ones who come out having better qualities to be a leader than others. The strongest people, become the greatest influences in which others follow. Although sometimes the physically strongest person is not the best choice. In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, Ralph, not the stronger person, demonstrates a better understanding of people than Jack which gives him better leadership qualities. In this novel Ralph demonstrates many different characteristics that make him a better leader than Jack. Ralph displays useful human qualities as a leader by working towards making a better society on the island for the boys. He knows the boys will need stability and rules on the island to keep them calm and together. He creates a simple form of government. Raplh treats all the boys with equal respect and dignity, where Jack does not. This shows Ralph is a better leader as he is able to acknowledge that he is not superior or better than any of the boys on the island. Ralph keeps the boys in order through the meetings he holds. At the meetings there is a sense of order given to the boys as they must wait for their turn to speak. When Ralph says, I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking. (Golding. 34) he enforces his role of a leaderby insisting rules and gives the boys an authority figure. By doing this he wins the respect of the boys, as well as confidence in his leadership qualities. Ralph realizes he possesess power and authority and he uses it in an attempt to better the society of the boys. By building shelters he demonstrates his knowledge of the boys needs. When he says to Jack, They talk and scream. The littluns, even some of the others, (54) he is referring to why the boys need shelters. The boys are frieghtened, and Ralph understands that by building the shelters, the boys will feel more safe and secure. Ralph demonstrateshis knowledge of human nature in the way he treats the boys. Where Jack thinks of himself as inferior to the rest of the boys Ralph sees them as equal. Ralph's leadership qualities are reflected in his constant defence of Piggy. Piggy is treated very unfairly. When Jack breaks his glasses Ralph calls it, A dirty trick (76). This shows Ralph's compassion and understanding of people. When Jack gets meat from hunting, he gives some to everyone but Piggy. When Piggy asks for some, Jack says, You didn't hunt. (78). Ralph and some of the littluns didn't although Piggy is the only one not fed. Jacks contempt for Piggy shows his inability to understand people, as a good leader would take care of all his followers. Ralph understands this and therefor is better leader. A good leader should be able to look into the future and plan accordingly. Ralph does this. The choices he makes aren;'t popular as most of the boys rather follow Jack and goof off. When Piggy says, Which is better to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? (197), this demonstrates that by not following the besr leader their chances of getting rescued from the island are growing slimmer. The boys make the wrong choice to hunt and play games rather than keep the fire burning and build good shelters. Ralph's clear understanding of people and needs make him a far better leader when compared to Jack. Jacks societ was barbaric and savage and met none of these needs. Jack treats the boys as slaves. A good leader may not be as charismatic as a poor one, it isimportant to choose the leader which will meet the needs of people. The popularityof an English Essays

Guns in america essays

Guns in america essays For my discursive essay I have chosen Guns in America and will look at the licensing laws and some reasons behind all the gun-related deaths. America is in a deadly love affair with firearms which kill nearly 35 000 people every year. Many blame the blood soaked statistics on the worlds weakest gun laws, while others blame it on the guns, the culture or even just bad parenting. America is one of the worlds richest countries but it has the worlds weakest gun laws. Some people blame this for all the gun-related deaths. Gun related deaths in Great Britain and Australia have decreased dramatically as a result of stricter gun laws following the Dunblane and Port Arthur massacres. This shows that countries not as rich and powerful as America have done something to prevent it from happening again where as one of the richest and most powerful countries has done nothing to prevent massacres happening again. It took 12 years after President Regan narrowly escaped an assassination attempt for Congress to pass the Brady Bill (A 5-day waiting period and background checks of prospective pistol purchasers). As a result of the Brady Bill it has prevented some 250 000 people from purchasing handguns and probably prevented a lot of fatalities. If it took this long after the president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt to devise this law how long will it take to sort out simple everyday shootings across the nation? Most Americans want stricter gun laws as a recent Harris poll found out that 69% of all Americans and 57% of the nations gun owners WANT stricter gun laws. With around 200 250 million guns in America and 10 times as many licensed gun dealers as Mc Donalds restaurants, it is no wonder, they want stricter gun laws and want to reduce the number of gun fatalities. But all of America is not as obsessed with guns as Kennesaw in Georgia has ...

Urban Sociology Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Urban Sociology - Article Example Based on the article written by Mousseau & Mittal (2006: 66), stakeholders who greatly benefit from food aid are not really the less benefit individuals who live in developing countries but the U.S. food manufacturer, U.S. shipping companies, the NGOs, and relief organizations. In the case of food manufacturer, Horizon Milling – a U.S. based company that produces wheat and flour products (Horizon Milling, 2008) sold as much as $1.09 billion worth of grain for food aid operation since 1995. By establishing a strong ties with the U.S. government, the company was able to earn significantly large amount of profit without having to worry about potential competitors that could offer the U.S. government with cheaper prices of similar food products. Since most of the U.S. food aid is given to developing countries in the form of ‘in-kind’, U.S. based manufacturing companies that produces food, seeds, and other farming related products are the ones that earns profit out of the food aid program. The same is true in the case of the U.S. shipping companies since the 1985 Farm Bill requires 75% of the U.S. food aid to be shipped solely by U.S. vessels. (Mousseau & Mittal, 2006: 66) Given that the United States is considered a developed country, the volume of food products that is shipped to developing countries under the said food aid program is significantly less because of the high prices of U.S. food products and the shipping cost via U.S. vessels. For this reason, it is arguable that the U.S. food aid program is not really focused on minimizing the global hunger but a way of strengthening its own economy by allowing the food manufacturing and U.S. shipping companies to earn more profit from the said program. The main focus of the U.S. food aid program is to increase the sales and profitability of its local food manufacturers and shipping companies rather than

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mark Mazower's After the War was Over - Essay Example rience of its brief life as a nation-state’{p.21}) to restore justice and prosecute collaborators were undone by the resurrection of the anticommunist right wing faction. Eleni Haidia’s essay â€Å"The Punishment of Collaborators in Northern Greece, 1945-1946† (Chapter 2 of the book) is a composition of studies of trials of collaborators in Thessaloniki. It explores how at first there was widespread determination to mete out strong punishment, a determination that eventually broke down and vanished after encountering malignancies such as improper administration practices, corruption, lack of funding and the new, sudden and unforeseen political crisis that resulted after the civil war. Procopis Papastratis’ essay â€Å"Purging the University after Liberation† (Chapter 3 of the volume) explores the efforts carried out with the aim of cleansing Athens University of those persons who had collaborated with the Germans and the pre-war Metaxas regime. The University used academic and political tactics to successfully repulse the threat of purging it; in the process, ironically, the University also succeeded in expelling several of its professors who supported the EAM (National Liberation Front). Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis’ essay â€Å"An Affair of Politics, Not Justice: The Merten Trial (1957-1959) and Greek-German Relations† (Chapter 14 of the book) reveals how Max Merten, a Nazi official mainly responsible for the deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews, escaped justice. She highlights this trial to show that not only collaborators, but even German war criminals escaped Greek justice, an evasion made possible by the late 1950s â€Å"mutual interest† move by the Greek and West German governments to turn a blind eye to past wartime events, and look ahead with a view to boost mutual political and economic relations. Polymeris Voglis’ essay â€Å"Between Negation and Self-Negation: Political Prisoners in Greece, 1945-1950† (Chapter 4 of the volume) is a valuable study

Critical Summaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Critical Summaries - Essay Example Mimics and gestures are also predetermined by culture. At the same time, some facial expressions are universal. Russell (1991) considers different points of view and recognizes limitations of his study. Provided literature review clearly explains different approaches to emotion categorization. Significance of culture and language in emotion cognition become clear when Russell (1991) supports them with examples and observations. This article becomes the point of departure for further research in sociocultural aspect of emotions. The article The Construction of Emotion in Interactions, Relationships, and Cultures by Boiger and Mesquita (2012) presents the main argument that emotions are constructed in the process of social interactions. Authors list three main contexts of interactions which can be moment-to-moment, ongoing relationships and sociocultural. Moment-to-moment interactions motivate emotional responses in people which become parts of ongoing relationships that exist in bigger sociocultural context. All these contexts define uniqueness and character of emotional response people express in the process of communication. Boiger and Mesquita (2012) oppose naturalist models which define emotions as universal, invariant and innate programs. Their line of reasoning relies on developmental psychology which studies emotion formation in infants and adults. For instance, infants develop their in the process of interaction with their caregivers. Being in relationships, people do not only express their emotions, but share them. As a result, their emotions adapt to the kind of relationships they have. Finally, sociocultural context often defines expected emotional responses in particular situations. Overall, Boiger and Mesquita (2012) back their argument referring to other relevant research with makes their article persuasive. They present enough facts and examples to apply their theory practically and show how it works.