The Last Supper- Portion Expands!

Life

oi-Devaki

By Devaki

Monday, March 29, 2010, 11:11

The sizes of portions and plates in the adaptations of Leaonardo Da Vinci's famous work, 'The Last Supper', have gradually grown bigger by the past 1000 years. As art initiates life, this indicates the growing appetites among the people, says the scientists.

The phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates, which has occured gradually over the millenium pushes people to overeat.

The researchers who took the 52 most famous paintings of the Last Supper, analyzed the sizes of entrees, bread and plates, relative to the avearage size of the average head in the painting. The size of the entrees in the paintings of the Last Supper, which according to the New Testament occured during a passover evening, has progressively grown by 69 percent. The increase in the plate size and bread size are 66 and 23 percent respectively. The average width of the bread is twice the width of the average desciple's head.

The research could prove the dramatic increase in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food.

The analysis was aided by computer aided design technology, that allowed the items in the paintings to be scanned, rotated and calculated, regardless of their orientation in the painting.

The study has been published in The International Journal of Obesity.