Supersizing The Last Supper

In paintings of the Last Supper done over the past 1000 years, the portion sizes of the food depicted have increased by 69%.

From the 52 paintings, which date between 1000 and 2000 A.D., the sizes of loaves of bread, main dishes and plates were calculated with the aid of a computer program that could scan the items and rotate them in a way that allowed them to be measured. To account for different proportions in paintings, the sizes of the food were compared to the sizes of the human heads in the paintings.

• art
• food
• obesity
• science