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THE LAST SUPPER can now be viewed online in a high-resolution image that provides far greater detail than what is possible to be seen in person by any layperson visiting the original wall painting at the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.

A new high-resolution picture of Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece The Last Supper has been posted online, exposing the artist's finest brush strokes to conspiracy theorists across the internet.

At 16 billion pixels, the image is 1,600 times stronger than those produced by a typical 10 million pixel digital camera.

The high-resolution allows art lovers to view details of the 15th century painting as though they were centimetres away from the work...

And,

...The work, in Milan's Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, was restored in a painstaking effort that wrapped up in 1999 -- a project aimed at reversing half a millennium of damage to the famed artwork. Leonard painted the "Last Supper" dry, so the painting did not cleave to the surface in the fresco style, meaning it is more delicate and subject to wear.

"Over the years it has been subjected to bombardments; it was used as a stall by Napoleon," Artioli said. The restoration removed 500 years of dirt while also removing previous restoration works that masked Leonardo's own work...

All learned studies aside about THE LAST SUPPER by Leonardo Da Vinci, from my perspective as a painter, I've always viewed the "negative space" between the central figure of Jesus Christ and the Disciple, John (to our viewer left but at the right hand of Christ), that that negative space was an indication of or "room for" painter Da Vinci's presence.

Da Vinci, like all the rest of us humans who are in reverance, faith and belief in Christ and Christ's requests of us -- although not among the twelve disciples present with Christ at the actual last supper -- would not exclude himself from Christ's presence but reverently could not include his own image in a rendition of this historical event, which, if he had done so, would profane the event by corrupting the reportage.

And, thus, Da Vinci created "room" for himself to exist to Christ's right, which is depicted by Da Vinci appropriately as negative space (and a "V" shaped negative space at that): the missing body of Da Vinci, present in spirit with Christ and the Disciples. And, of course, room for all believers to also be located there. But, Da Vinci, as the painter of this remarkable work and a person of faith in Christ, would not literally be capable of removing himself from the work and thus, the negative space to our view, filled with and by faith by Da Vinci. It's both an egotistical statement by Da Vinci but also an assertion of belief: the viewer of the work must have faith in what is there, and that is, that which is literally unseen but quite obviously present (the space itself becomes the presence of faith, by faith).

"...it's not just blowing things up and unleashing the force on anyone..."

Coming Spring 2008, STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED, newest game from LucasArts Entertainment.

The trailer is available to view on LucasArts site, but I found that there's a better video stream when viewed on Yahoo's Star Wars site (starwars.yahoo.com).

Yahoo's site includes several additional videos that are more interesting to my view than the trailer, however, as to the creative paths and processes involved in bringing this latest experience from Lucasfilm into existence:

"New Technology: Learn about Digital Molecular Matter"

"Euphoria: A Revolutionary Behavioral-Simulation Engine" ("...simulation based, not driven by animation...")

and,

"The Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed"

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Release Date: Spring 2008
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment
Developer: LucasArts Entertainment
Genre: Action

The Star Wars video game saga continues with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which casts players as Darth Vader's secret apprentice and unveils an expansive story about the era between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. Players will help Darth Vader in his quest to eliminate the Jedi from the universe and possibly change the course of history.

Tthe game is available on:
-- Xbox 360 -- PlayStation 3 -- PlayStation 2 -- PSP -- Nintendo DS

My thought, however, when viewing the trailer, is, what with the use of the force in the opening sequence, why didn't this new apprentice stop the craft from crashing, or, better still, why didn't he send the craft back into the air to fly -- it's the force, after all, use of it can put any broken thing back together and return the busted to whole. The apprentice in black probably explains why that doesn't happen.

COMIC-CON is an interesting and fun experience for any creative person. This year's Convention starts today, July 20, 2006 and continues through Sunday, July 23, 2006.

Very entertaining group of Special Guests scheduled this year.

Update: "Odd Job For Miller"
Comicbook artist to helm "The Spirit"

...Uslan said he shopped "The Spirit" to various studios with no luck. "They would say, 'This is great, but we have to get him out of a suit and tie and into spandex. Also, he doesn't have any superpowers.'"

..."decision to tap Miller will be announced at Comic-Con on Saturday..."

Among tomorrow afternoon's activity (Friday, July 21, 2006):

Paramount will screen "...glimpses of 'Transformers' and 'Beowulf'..."

Lucasfilm with "...anything and everything 'Star Wars'..."

New Line presents: "...Samuel L. Jackson makes his first Comic-Con appearance to promote 'Snakes on a Plane.'"

Photograph used above for cartoon purposes by this website is by REUTERS, muslims demonstrating in Israel, February 4, 2006



"EMBASSIES TORCHED AS CARTOON FUROR GROWS"

-- Note that there were cartoons drawn and that embassies are burned "in response."

-- Note as proven time and time again that the response to giving way to demands of terrorists results in more terrorism.

-- Note that Christians are "on edge" while muslims are rioting, pillaging, destroying embassies and continue to pillage, rape and blow things up as they have for some time now.

-- Note that the reason these Danes now fear for their lives is because they drew cartoons. Here is one of the drawn images that has created the most upset among terrorists (an oxymoronic expression, I realize); I think it's most upsetting because it's most accurate as this concept of 'islam' is exemplified throughout our world, including self destruction along with destroying anyone else having the misfortune of being in a four thousand mile radius proximity. HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE hosts the range of Danish cartoons that are deemed worthy by muslims of rioting and pillaging and destroying embassies if not everyone else.

As mentioned in an earlier thread (" ...THE LOWER REALMS OF HELL"), Mohammad is judged by God to be one of "the sowers of discord" and condemned to spend eternity in the Inferno (Hades, Hell, The Pits) and I'm thinking Dante had his reasons to so depict the man ("Mohammed" among the Sowers of Discord, by Gustave Dore, illustration of "Circle 8, Subcircle 7-10, Dante Alighieri's THE DIVINE COMEDY ['DIVINA COMMEDIA"]). Mohammed is depicted here and elsewhere in literture as being perpetually rented (ripped) apart with his entrails perpetually falling out, the doomed fate of those who "sow discord."

From reading the internet recently, I see that Dante's DIVING COMEDY is again popular as reference but I wish that more people would read it aside from these concerns about the cartoons from Denmark and the terrorism in response to those (and otherwise) from and by some muslims. Dante's work is sublime and quite inspired by God. The University of Texas at Austin offers text document downloads for those who don't have printed copies of Dante's THE DIVINE COMEDY.

From the University of Texas at Austin by Gustave Dore, "Mohammed"

Update:
Extensive links and content shared on FreeRepublic about "Islam, A Religion of Peace(?)".
Extensive reference and currently updated news links.

Front Cover, STAR WARS POSTER BOOK by Steve Sansweet and Pete Vilmur, Copyright 2005 Lucasfilm, Ltd.



Now published, ("Star Wars Poster Book"), is well worth acquiring by historians and enthusiasts of film advertising/print media and general STAR WARS lore. I received just yesterday a signed copy from authors Pete Vilmur and Steve Sansweet ("Stephen J. Sansweet is the director of content management and head of fan relations at Lucasfilm...Peter Vilmur is an online content developer at Lucasfilm...") and more than anything, enjoyed the email discussions that Pete and I had months ago while he was researching certain works for inclusion in the book. I am very grateful to have been included among the many creatives who have contributed to the poster artworks throughout the history of the STAR WARS series.

It's a beautiful, thorough and well documented book. Me, I am just sitting here tonight marvelling as to the scope and immensity of change that is the George Lucas contribution to filmmaking, but, as to the history of how his legacy has been and is represented before audience, this book provides a great window-look through to center stage.