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This Is Your Title: It Should Be Descriptive but Succinct

Your Name

Department of ABC, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater

ABC 101: Course Name

Professor (or Dr.) Firstname Lastname

Date
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The Last Supper

Figure 1: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Last Supper is a colonial European art (mural) by Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci in

late 15th century. The painting represents the last supper of Jesus Christ with his twelve Apostles,

particularly the scene right after Jesus announces that one of his Apostles, Judas was going to

betray him which subsequently led to the capture of Jesus Christ. Thus, the painting is of great

importance to the Christian faithful’s and exhibits the renaissance biblical art.

The painting is incredibly symmetrical, has humanistic and natural feel as a Renaissance

painting should. The room is plain and parallel perspective is used to focus on the subject of the

painting, Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

The painting being renaissance, is colonial. It has western religion and lifestyle depicted

elaborately. Feminism and Queer method of analysis is also explained in brief in the paper

below.
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Post- Colonial approach

The painting is biblical. The scene right after Jesus announces that one of his Apostles

will betray him in the future is represented in the painting. The painting also showcases the

change in early renaissance to renaissance art. Andrea del Castagno’s Last Supper (1447)

consists of ornated forms, colorful marbles and Sphinx showcasing the medieval idea of western

art while Da Vinci’s simpler rooms and naturalistic and simple forms depict the more spiritual

sense of the scene.

Post- Colonial idea was to transcend or move beyond colonial idea of mood and thought.

It is a form of analysis which embraces the idea of multiplicity, complexity and exchange rather

than assume the centrality of European tradition. It focuses mainly on race, ethnicity and culture.

Moreover, in Post- Colonial criticism the main theme is to disregard the colonial thought of the

Oriental world and their binary view of the overall humanity with their way being superior.

(Edward W. Said, Orientalism).

In the above painting there is clear depiction of colonial ideas. It showcases the idea of

heaven and tranquility in the verdant landscape outside the window in the painting which

represents paradise, suggesting the path to paradise is possible only through Christ. The overall

theme being Neoplatonic (idea of Greek philosophy with Christian theology) it doesn’t account

for oriental ideas and beliefs.

Feminism approach

The painting doesn’t contain any female characters in it. “The last supper” has Jesus

Christ with his twelve Apostles as the subject. In the Gospels it’s clearly stated that Jesus had no

problem associating with females while talking to them or eating with them. In the painting
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above the exclusion of female maybe because Jesus was trying to install priesthood in his trusted

twelve. Renaissance art had female characters in it but depicting beauty standards and humanistic

nature. The art above having no female in it could be said to be regressive in feministic

approach.

Queer approach

The above painting doesn’t show any homosexuality or reference it. The theme of the

painting being biblical, the painting is completely free of homosexual content or any LGBQT

symbolism. The Renaissance Italy however in the 15th century was intolerant of homosexual

activity. “Officers of the night” an organization to control homosexual activity was also created

in Florence of Italy. Any person who was indulged in homosexual activity was incriminated.

However, there were openly homosexual artists and the art were themed Queer too sometimes.

Giovani Antonio Bazzi was such painter, “Ii Sodoma” was the name he was given by the people

and which he kept for being homosexual.

Comparison of the approaches

“The last supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci brings forth the European Lifestyle and their

religious belief into the picture. The piece being a biblical art is absent of any form of

homosexual and feministic visuals if we interpret it visually. The Renaissance time period,

especially of Italy was prejudice of both women and Queer. They were present in the art and

literature but were oppressed and were not regarded as much in the social periphery as their male

counterpart. In the art itself there is no inclusion of even one woman as one of the twelve

Apostles, lack and loathing of Queer activity and general elevated depiction of western culture

and lifestyle suggests the ignorance of all there, post- colonial, feminism and queer as a context.
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Contrast of analysis

On the other hand, the post-colonial criticism, feminism and queer analysis of the art

have different agendas and could be contrasted. Post-colonial criticism backs oriental beliefs as

Eastern and African religion being disregarded in the art. Feministic criticism brings forth the

idea of lack of a female counterpart as the Apostle of Jesus Christ and how Biblical literature and

art in general is ignorant of females in general. Queer criticism in respect to the art is also their

outcast from the mainstream society and generalized taboo of their sexuality. The bible also

consists of texts that the Christians use to condemn Queer. Noah and Ham (Genesis 9:20–27),

Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1–11) and so on. Thus, the three critical methods have their

own applications in the analysis of the above painting.

Conclusion

The painting depicts the last supper of Jesus Christ with his Apostles right before he

announces that one of them was going to betray him. If we look at the painting closely, we can

synthesize the late renaissance artistic style with the use of parallel perspectives, humanistic

features and natural feel. The art gives the colonial idea of religion and their then views on

overall humanity (reference of possibility of paradise through Jesus Christ) and the overall

religious colonial views. The feministic ideals of society were almost null and the lack of queer

reference and the history of renaissance tells us that the above biblical art “The last Supper” by

Leonardo Da Vinci was a conveyer of colonial thought and regressive in terms of feminism and

Queer critics.
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References

[More References examples for your assistance here]

American Psychological Association. (year). Article title: Capital letter also for subtitle. Name of

Journal, volume#(issue#), pg#-pg#.

Author(s) of essay or chapter. (year). Title of essay or chapter. In F. M. Lastname (Ed.), Book

title (pages of essay or chapter). Publisher. https://doi.org/10.xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Freud, S. (year). Article title. Name of Journal, volume(issue), pages.

https://doi.org/10.xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Pavlov, I., Jung, C., & Freud, S. (year of last update, month day). Webpage title. Source or

hosting webpage. https://www.someurl.com/full/address

Ramirez, A. T. (year). Book title. Publisher. https://doi.org/10.xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Skinner, B. F., & Ferster, C. B. (year). Article title: Capital letter also for subtitle. Name of

Journal, volume#(issue#), pg#-pg#. https://doi.org/10.xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Stein, D. J., Friedman, M. J., & Blanco, C. (Eds.). (year). Book title (edition, Vol. #). Publisher.

https://doi.org/10.xx.xxxxxxxxxx