Finally, after weeks of laborious searching,
a young man nineteen years of
age, was selected as a model for the
portrayal of Christ. For six months,
Da Vinci worked on the reproduction
of this leading character in his
famous painting. During the next six years,
Da Vinci continued his labors on
this sublimework of art. One by one,
fitting persons were chosen to represent
each of the eleven Apostles; space being
left for the painting of the figure
representing Judas Iscariot, as the final
task of this masterpiece. This was the
Apostle, you remember, who betrayed his Lord
for thirty pieces of silver, worth
$16.96 in our present day currency.

For weeks, Da Vinci searched for a
man with a hard callous face, with a
countenance marked by scars of avarice,
deceit, hypocrisy, and crime;
a face that would delineate a character,
who would betray his best friend.

After many discouraging experiences,
in searching for the type of person
required to represent Judas, word
came to Da Vinci that a man, whose
appearance fully met his requirements,
had been found in a dungeon in
Rome, sentenced to die for a life of crime and murder.

Da Vinci made the trip to Rome at once,
and this man was brought out from
his imprisonment in the dungeon
and led out into the light of the sun.
There Da Vinci saw before him a dark,
swarthy man; his long, shaggy and unkempt
hair sprawled over his face,
which betrayed a character of viciousness
and complete ruin. At last, the famous
painter had found the person he
wanted to represent the character
of Judas in his painting.

By special permission from the king,
this prisoner was carried to Milan
where the picture was being painted;
and for months he sat before Da Vinci at
appointed hours each day, as the
gifted artist diligently continued his
task of transmitting to his painting
this base character in the picture
representing the traitor and betrayer of our saviour.
As he finished his last stroke, he
turned to the guards and said,
"I have finished. You may take the prisoner away."

As the guards were leading their prisoner away,
he suddenly broke loose
from their control and rushed up to Da Vinci,
crying as he did so,
"Oh, Da Vinci, look at me!
Do you not know who I am?"

Da Vinci, with the trained eyes of a great
character student, carefully
scrutinized the man, upon whose
face he had constantly gazed for six
months and replied,
"No, I had never seen you in my life,
until you were rought before me
out of the dungeon in Rome."

Then, lifting his eyes toward heaven,
the prisoner said,
"Oh, God, have I fallen so low?"
Then turning toward the painter he cried,
"Leonardo Da Vinci!
Look at me again, for I am the same man
you painted just seven years ago
as the figure of Christ."

Many lessons can be learned from this
true story of the painting of
The Last Supper. This is a story of how we
often perceive others - how
easily we overlook the Christ within
the people we meet, and judge by
outward appearances. This also strongly
teaches the lesson of the
effects of right or wrong thinking, on the life of
an individual. Here was a young man whose
character was so pure and
unspoiled by the sins of the world, that he
presented a countenance of
innocence and beauty fit to be used for
the painting of a representation of Christ.
But within seven years, following the thoughts of sin and a
life of crime, he was changed into a
perfect picture of the most traitorous
character ever known in the history of the world