Leonardo da Vinci and the Face of Christ

It is told of Leonardo da Vinci, that when he was painting that picture which stands perhaps among the best known in the world, the great picture, wonderful for all its marvellous skill — the picture of the Last Supper — he had a bitter quarrel with one of his contemporaries, and he thought that he would strike a lasting blow at him, and that he would show what he thought of the fellow by painting his face in that picture for the face of Judas Iscariot.

And so he did. The enemy whom he hated he set in the picture as Judas Iscariot, that men might know what he thought of him. And then he worked on at his picture until he came to paint the central figure — till he came to paint the face of our Lord; and he tried and tried again but he never could satisfy himself with it.

Always it was at fault. Always it was clearly behind what he wanted to get. Meanwhile there had been growing in his heart some sense of shame at what he had done towards his enemy — some sense of uneasiness at treating a man like that, however much he hated him.

This feeling grew and grew in him as he worked on, until at last he got quite ashamed and made up his mind that he had done a wrong; and so at last he sponged out the face of Judas Iscariot. He took it right out of the picture, and that night he saw in a dream that face of our Lord which he has sketched and painted in the picture. There were the lineaments and the look that he had been longing to sketch.

There they were. He could now portray the face of Christ because he had put away bitterness out of his heart, and had made at least one step towards being in charity with all men.