"Last Supper" Postcards - Pack of 12 (21 x 10cm/8" x 4")

Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece "The Last Supper" is for many Christians the clearest image they have of Christ's last meal with his disciples. Yet though it is great art, da Vinci's painting is bad history.

Da Vinci shows thirteen Renaissance Italian males in oriental costume in a Florentine palace, not a Jewish celebration of the Passover in Palestine. The figures are seated about the tables on benches eating a meal of fish and ordinary bread, whereas Jesus and his disciples would have reclined on couches and ate a Passover meal consisting of unleavened bread, roast lamb and bitter herb.

More importantly, Da Vinci shows only Jesus and the twelve apostles, omitting women and children. The Passover meal is intended to be shared by all members of the family and the laws of Passover require children to ask questions so that they can learn the meaning of the Passover meal from their parents. Jesus was supported by many women in his ministry and they followed him up to Jerusalem. They would have been with Jesus for the Last Supper, as they were at the foot of the cross the next day when the men ran away.

In order to counter Leonardo's powerful image of the Last Supper, BASIC (Brothers And Sisters in Christ) commissioned the eminent Polish artist Bohdan Piasecki to paint the Last Supper as a Jewish Passover meal with women and children present. In 2012 BASIC voted to merge with We Are Church Ireland and passed on the publishing rights to the "Last Supper" picture to We Are Church Ireland

The original painting is oil on canvas measuring 150cm x 74cm (50" x 29")