Has even the Last Supper been supersized? The food in famous paintings of the meal has grown by biblical proportions over the past millennium, researchers report in a medical journal today.
Using a computer, they compared the size of the food to the size of the heads in 52 paintings of Jesus Christ and his disciples at their final meal before his death.
If art imitates life, we’re in trouble, the researchers conclude. Between the years 1000 and 2000, the size of the main dish grew 69 percent, the plate 66 percent and the bread 23 percent.
Supersizing is considered a modern phenomenon, but “what we see recently may be just a more noticeable part of a very long trend,” said Brian Wansink, a food behavior scientist at Cornell University.
The study was his idea. For biblical context, he sought help from his brother, Craig Wansink, a professor of religious studies and an ordained Presbyterian minister.
The Bible says the Last Supper took place on a Passover evening but gives little detail on specific foods besides bread and wine.
Other foods such as fish, eel, lamb and pork have appeared in Last Supper paintings, Brian Wansink said.
For the study, he used paintings featured in the book “Last Supper,” published in 2000 by Phaidon Press. They include perhaps the most famous portrayal of the meal, by Leonardo da Vinci.
Computer technology allowed them to scan, rotate and calculate images regardless of their orientation in the paintings. Details are in the April issue of the International Journal of Obesity.
The study is “not very meaningful science,” said Martin Binks, a behavioral health psychologist and a consultant at Duke University Medical Center. A more contemporary test would be to analyze portion sizes in Super Bowl commercials, he suggested.
