Novel claims painter portrayed founder of Church as a traitor (Leonardo's "Last Supper")

UK Telegraph ^ | 2/5/06 | Roya Nikkhah

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A new novel, based "90 per cent on historical facts", depicts Leonardo Da Vinci as a heretic who painted his own face into The Last Supper, and claims that the painting portrays Saint Peter as a traitor and carries a blasphemous message.

The Secret Supper, which has sold more than 500,000 copies in Europe, is set to rival The Da Vinci Code for conspiracy theories about one of the most famous figures in art history.

The novel portrays Da Vinci as a Cathar, a member of a gnostic sect outlawed by the Roman Catholic Church.

The story, which is being fought over by Hollywood studios hoping to emulate The Da Vinci Code phenomenon, is set in 1497 and told by Fr Augustin Leyre, a Vatican monk and expert code-breaker.

He is sent to infiltrate the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery in Milan, the home of The Last Supper, after anonymous letters to the Pope accuse Da Vinci of concealing subversive ideas in his work. The monk deciphers the painting into a series of Cathar messages, revealing Da Vinci's denunciation of the Church.

Javier Sierra, the novel's Spanish author, claims that most his characters and events are based on historical records. "The book is fiction but 90 per cent of the facts are real," he said.

Sierra suggests that Saint Peter, not Judas Iscariot, is depicted as the villain.

"Saint Peter, the founder of the Church, from whom the Pope directly descended, is holding a dagger in one hand and menacing John with the other," he said. "Leonardo points to the Pope as the traitor of the Church - absolute blasphemy."

Although the Cathars were dismantled by the Inquisition in France, some historians have suggested those who survived took refuge in Spain and Italy and that their last known settlement in the 16th century was at Concorezzo, a town outside Milan.

"During Leonardo's years in Milan, the Cathars lived close to him - a coincidence that has never been underlined," said Sierra.

He refers to the Cathars' doctrine, Interrogatio Johannis - commonly known as The Secret Supper - to confirm Da Vinci's Cathar convictions by drawing comparisons with his masterpiece.

"This is the first time an artist depicts Jesus and his disciples without their halos," he said. "The Cathars did not worship the saints and considered Jesus a human, not the son of God."

Sierra also claims that Da Vinci painted himself as the disciple Judas Thaddeus - St Jude. The author used facial recognition software to compare Thaddeus's image with one of Da Vinci's self-portraits.

"The police use the same software and consider 60 per cent similarities as a good match," he said. "These images showed an 81 per cent match."

The Secret Supper has sparked controversy among academics. David d'Avray, a professor of medieval history at University College London, said that Sierra's claims were "as likely to appeal to professional historians as much as flat-earthers' arguments appeal to professional geographers".

Gillian Evans, a professor of medieval theology and intellectual history at Cambridge university, said most historians believed that the Cathars had died two centuries before Leonardo. "The Secret Supper is no doubt a good read. Just don't confuse it with history," she said.

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"Fake but accurate," "emotionally true," so many phrases.