The Last Supper (1498) – Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper is one of his most discussed works of art among at conspiracy theorists who regularly find hidden codes in his work. It turns out that the "Last Supper" is full of secret codes and meanings.

We're not talking here about the cryptograms that, according to Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, hold the secrets of Jesus’s later life, or about the allegations that a hidden mathematical and astrological code within the painting reveals the day when the end of the world will begin (which, by the way, is March 21, 4006).

Along with all of the codes, Leonardo seems to have left us some music too – something like a graphic representation of the sounds of his age. At first glance, the way the bread rolls are scattered across the table don’t appear to reveal anything mysterious, and you’d have to spend a lot of time and imaginative energy on them to come up with anything approaching a hidden message.

However, several years ago, an Italian computer technician called Giovanni Maria Pala did exactly this and found something fascinating – a music sheet left by Da Vinci himself. If the five lines of a musical staff are drawn on the table of the Last Supper, then each bread roll in combination with the hands of the Apostles corresponds with a certain musical note.

When the notes are read from right to left (the way Da Vinci wrote), the combination of notes transforms into a 40-second long composition that sounds like a requiem. Of course, there is always a chance that this is pure coincidence, but the fact is the compositions sound very harmonious when played. Researchers also know that besides being a painter, Da Vinci was also an excellent musician and inventor.