Last Supper paintings suffer from portion distortion, study finds
Jesus would eat, but how much.
According to a new study in the International Journal of Obesity, artist's depictions of the Last Supper have seen the main courses balloon by 69 per cent, plate sizes by 66 per cent, and bread size by 23 per cent over the last 1,000 years. The researchers say this supports the idea that “portion distortion” isn’t a modern phenomenon at all, but rather a trend that’s developed over at least a millennium.
“There’s been a tendency for portions — whether what we serve ourselves or what we’re served in restaurants — to become exaggeratedly bigger with the passage of time,” says Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell University and author of the bestselling book Mindless Eating.
“A lot of people want to blame this on events of the last 20 years when, really, it’s part of a much bigger trend.”
The study, titled The Largest Last Supper, was co-authored by Wansink’s brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College.
The sibling scholars recall having a “eureka moment” upon observing that the amount of food shown in paintings of Jesus’ final meal with His apostles — arguably the most famously depicted dinner in history — appeared to be relative to the date the art was created.
Because the Bible isn’t specific about the amount of chow consumed that night, Brian notes that “any interpretation of what was on that table, along with its quantity, is all in the mind of the artist, who’ll be biased by the norms of the time.”
To test their theory, the brothers analyzed 52 of the best-known paintings of the Biblical banquet, created roughly between 1000 and 2000 AD. To account for the works’ varying dimensions, the size of the average disciple’s head was used to index the pictured food — which included such dishes as fish and lamb.
“Matthew, Mark and Luke are the only three (Gospels) that specifically talk about the Last Supper ... and they only mention bread and wine,” says Craig.
“The reality is that other foods are included (in artists’ depictions) because they make the meal something people can relate to.”
In confirming that a painting’s chronology and portion distortion are, in fact, significantly linked, the brothers conclude that “the contemporary discovery of increasing portion sizes and food availability may be little more than 1,000-year-old wine in a new bottle.”
Home 
Portal 
