A Última Ceia (2007)
Jorge de Sousa
PT
Photography

The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray Him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. Thi piece revisits this Biblic scene, inspired by the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, following the Master's approach rigorously, although there are some aspects that diverge from that master-piece.

From left to right:

The first apostles form a group of three, all are surprised.

The second group of three is where Judas is. He is the only one with his back facing Jesus. Peter is in this group too, and looks angry and suspicious. He has placed the knife on the table near to him to have control over that weapon. If someone will try to reach the knife he will get it first not letting anyone else use it. But he doesn't believe that someone from the group could betray Jesus. The most probable situation would come from someone in the outside, so he his looking at you.

The next group of three. One is clearly upset; another looks stunned, with his arms wide open; he's falling because all the strength in his legs has gone. Meanwhile, one of the apostles appears to be requesting some explanation.

The final group of three. Two of them are turned toward Simon, perhaps to find out if he has any answer to their questions.

Jesus is at centre. He has both hands turned upside receiving the Divine light over Him.

The number 3, which is an allusion to the Holy Trinity, is the main key to this work. All the composition is based in a triangle with focus on Jesus; and the shape of Christ's figure resembles a triangle too. The Apostles are forming groups of three. There are three objects on the table representing the Holy Grail. There are 3 seated apostles on the right side of Jesus and another 3 seated on the left side. Three Apostles in the left side and a further 3 in the right are wearing black. Three have their faces hidden, and so on...

There are a lot more references to the number 3 in this work. I purposely created some but at the end I could find a lot more.

Jorge de Sousa

Jorge de Sousa is Portuguese, and was born in 1962.

Believing that it could help everyone that looked for the Holy-water to cure their illnesses, I am sent down of Sunday school and forbidden to enter in a church, when I was a child, because I dumped a package of painkillers into the Holy-water container. This episode would leave on me a deep mark to the rest of my life, transforming the chronologic sequence of events taking place along time into an assemblage of static images, made from characters, objects, colors, forms and textures, that would look more like a glimpse of fiction, than a piece of a childhood memory.

Throughout the different stages of my life, I have felt the need to reconstruct those moments from my past, of remembering and documenting it, as a way of revisiting it and recreate it according to my own reality.

I studied Applied Mathematics, Business Management, Sports Science, and Cinema, but it was only very recently that I found in photography the means of expression that would allow me to pull together all those loose pieces that populate my childhood memory.

Hence, I started to produce my photographs as if they were passages of an ancient time, supported by my memories, experiences and contradictions. These images are like time-machines, assembled from contemporary elements, to travel to a past that sometimes is more far away than my own existence.

I use digital cameras to capture my images, which I then arrange to correct color and light. There is not any kind of photographic montage.