Leonardo da Vinci is believed to have taken three years to complete The Last Supper, after he started work on the mural in Milan in 1495. But for Da Vinci Porul to progress from conception to stage as a large-scale kathakali play took much longer – just over two decades.
Staged at the Thrissur Regional Theatre on April 1, Da Vinci Porul – which means Decoding Da Vinci – was inspired as much by the Italian artist’s work as by a series of 12 paintings by retired government official Francis Antony Kodankandath.
Anthony created the works in 2003-’04 as a refutation of novelist Dan Brown’s interpretations of The Last Supper in his best-seller The Da Vinci Code, especially his depiction of Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus Christ.
Da Vinci Porul uses kathakali, which usually brings Hindu mythological stories to stage, to portray Anthony’s own geometrically-deciphered reading of The Last Supper.
“That Da Vinci used mirror images and a pointed finger to convey hidden messages is well-known,” said 66-year-old Anthony. “I used the same technique to provide evidence that Jesus Christ’s arms when extended as X and a circle drawn at the axis points reveal the Holy Grail and the Holy Bread.”
At the end of the kathakali play, Jesus Christ and some angels appear on the stage to bless Da...
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