Filmmakers have never been shy about taking visual cues from history's great painters - nor were many of those painters shy about taking cues from their predecessors and contemporaries. Images and compositions being shared, passed down, reused, remixed, and recontextualized is a long-standing artistic tradition, in everything from classical art to comic books. Some images are so iconic that you can find homages and reiterations practically everywhere - movies and television, music videos, advertisements, album covers, memes, even political campaigns.
But few images are as instantly recognizable as Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper - nor as frequently referenced in pop culture. The Renaissance master was hardly the first (nor last) to depict the Biblical event - indeed, it has been immortalized by countless painters for centuries - but his version is as close as there is to a definitive one. Allusions to The Last Supper in movies and TV are commonplace - be it within the narrative itself (with characters gathering for a meal and sitting with conspicuous deliberation on one side of the table) or, just as frequently, in marketing materials. Within a year of each other, Lost and Battlestar Galactica - both of which wore their religious allegories squarely on their sleeves - went for this same visual idea to advertise their final seasons.
P.T. Anderson did a Last Supper recreation in his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, Robert Altman did it before him in MASH, and yes, needless to say, The Simpsons did it. Not to mention more authentic spiritual fables like... uh, The Expendables 2. Vote up your favorites!
