The Secret Supper: A Novel [Hardcover]

 

 

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The story begins when an inquisitor for the Catholic Church in Rome receives letters written in calligraphy from a tipster in Milan warning him about a plan to turn Milan into a new Athens. He then heads north to unmask the evil Soothsayer and get to the root of the alleged anti-catholic trickery. The trouble seems to center on Leonardo da Vinci's new fresco "The Last Supper" which some believe is crammed with hidden messages.

I found there are too many oddities piling up to give this complicated story momentum, and I agree with some of the critics "This plot is full of baloney and it needs to gallop"

Borrow this book, in my opinion definitely not a buy.

Readers will not want to dismiss this novel out of hand as "yet another da Vinci book," for The Secret Supper is truly an entity unto itself, a well-written, incredibly provocative thriller of dazzling proportions. The product of three years of extensive research, The Secret Supper purports to solve an intriguing, centuries-old mystery, a mystery most of us had no idea even existed. Can it be that Leonardo da Vinci hid a secret, heretical message inside his celebrated painting of The Last Supper, an open secret that only those with eyes to see could identify as an anti-Roman Catholic missive in no less a holy place than the Dominican Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie?

I think most readers will be amazed to learn that they have never truly looked at this most familiar work of art. Certainly, as Sierra shows us, there are strange qualities if not outright anomalies in the painting. Why are there no halos above Christ and his disciples? Why do you see no representation of the Eucharistic bread or the Holy Grail? Why are two of the disciples looking the other way, seemingly ignoring Jesus' fateful revelation that He is to be betrayed by someone at that very table? And why, for goodness' sake, is Peter clutching a knife behind his back? Sierra soon leads us to additional oddities: the disciples bear the images of heretics, Judas Thaddeus is represented with Leonardo's own face, Simon's face is modeled on the Greek philosopher Plato, a knot on the tablecloth is indicative of Mary Magdalene. These are just a small sample of the issues Sierra raises about The Last Supper over the course of his incredible novel. And, just so you know, he does have answers awaiting you at the end of the novel, including the secret message and its significance as discovered by the author. You may or may not believe Sierra's conclusions about the painting and Leonardo himself, but, my goodness, it's more than worth your time and consideration. True or not, this certainly makes for one humdinger of a story, one that will completely captivate those with any interest in history, a good puzzle, and/or the history of Christianity (and, specifically, the Roman Catholic Church).

Set in 1497, during the final weeks of Leonardo's work on The Last Supper, The Secret Supper mixes historical characters with those of the author's own creation to reveal the mystery of the painting. The narrator is the fictional Friar Agostino Leyre, a Dominican Inquisitor sent to Milan for two purposes: to identify the anonymous insider who has been writing letters to Rome claiming that Leonardo's The Last Supper contains a secret message that brands him a heretic, and to discover what that hidden message actually is. The anonymous source, who calls himself the Soothsayer, has provided a seven-line puzzle that will identify him, and this is basically all that Leyre has to go on initially. During his stay at Santa Maria delle Grazie, he comes into contact with a variety of men, both inside and outside the Church, eventually including Leonardo himself, who provide him with tantalizing new clues about both subjects of his investigation. He also, of course, has the actual painting to study in its almost-completed state. Leyre's investigation eventually takes him places he would never have dreamed - but I won't go so far as to reveal any of those details. Suffice it to say that the sources of information Sierra draws upon in putting all of his historical pieces together are incredibly broad and exceedingly impressive (and, I should note, all of the ancient books referred to in the novel did actually exist). It makes for uncommonly powerful suspense as you join Friar Leyre in pursuit of the secret mystery at the heart of everything - Sierra calls this an "investigative novel," and so it truly is.

The Secret Supper is a bit more challenging than your typical novel. Those unfamiliar with the history of the Catholic Church may face a bit of a learning curve, as many of the key themes center on the symbolic rites and history of the Roman Catholic Church, and I'm sure non-Catholics will find some of the heretical notions addressed here less significant than those of the Catholic faith. In addition, the reader will doubtless encounter a number of historical figures they are completely unfamiliar with - but the author has provided a most helpful description of each of them at the back of the book. The one recommendation I do have for the reader is to have a reproduction of Leonardo's The Last Supper at your disposal, as you will surely want to refer to the complete painting on numerous occasions.

Now published in some 35 countries, The Secret Supper is one of the year's most discussed books. Author Javier Sierra has a penchant for trying to solve historical mysteries as we learned in his stories of the Templars and lost civilizations. He does so again with his view of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and those who surrounded its creation.

Simon Jones is the ideal voice to relate this story of subterfuge, trickery, fear, and passion. Broadway audiences enjoyed him in The Real Thing and The School for Scandal, while off-Broadway theatre goers applauded his performances in Woman in Mind and Terra Nova. Not one to rest on his laurels, Jones's credits also include film and television work in Brazil, Brideshead Revisited, and HBO's acclaimed Oz. His slight accent and resonant voice make this listening unalloyed pleasure.

The setting for The Last Supper is 1497 Milan just as da Vinci is putting the finishing touches on his painting of The Last Supper. It's always interesting to read an author's view of the artist as he's such an iconic figure that his persona seems to be more and more embellished as time passes. Nonetheless, Sierra views him as both determined and beleaguered. It has been said that the Prior at the convent of Santa Maria Delle Grazie who was observing da Vinci at work became impatient with the artist, weary of seeing da Vinci stand before his work in contemplation. So, the Prior complained to the Duke. That was but a minor annoyance as many, including Pope Alexander VI, had become convinced that the artist had hidden a secret message within his painting (shades of The Da Vinci Code).

It is not long before a papal inquisitor comes on the scene to settle this matter once and for all. And, settled it eventually is. However, for this listener Sierra weaves such an intriguing story and Jones reads it so compelling that the journey is quite enough.

- Gail Cooke

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