Huff Post: If you looked at Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century painting “The Last Supper” and didn’t know that it depicted a gathering of Jesus and his disciples for a Passover celebration, you would probably think it was a get-together of Christian monks. Not surprising, since that’s just what it looks like. Ross King, author of “Leonardo and the Last Supper,” notes that the painting was inspired by the communal meals of Dominican monks. In fact, the table and setting replicate the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan, Italy, where the Dominican friars dined — and the mural was painted by da Vinci on the wall of that chamber.
Although historians tell us that the “last supper” was indeed a Passover Seder, nowhere on da Vinci’s table do we see the traditional Passover foods that have symbolic meaning for Jews in remembrance of the Exodus. And the presence of bread is a total desecration of this “festival of unleavened bread.” Yet, Jesus instructed his disciples to prepare for a traditional Jewish Passover (Luke 22:7-13).
Some commentators have wondered why the Holy Grail — the vessel that Jesus and the Disciples drank from at the last supper — is absent from Leonardo’s painting. But Jesus might ask, “Never mind the Holy Grail, where’s the matzoh?”