Adam Jones’ amazing World Baseball Classic catch Saturday and the crowd shots that came with it sparked plenty of reactions, including Levi Weaver breaking down how one particular shot compared to famous works of art for wfaa.com (Dallas’ ABC affiliate). Weaver then one-upped himself, though, putting Jones and several other iconic sports meme images into Leonardo da Vinci’s famed The Last Supper:
The amount of recognizable memes in this image is something. There’s everything from Yelling Stanford Bro and Backwards Hat Tony Romo (at left) to Jones (in the foreground at middle) to Crying Northwestern Kid, Diving Tim Howard and Photobombing Pete Rose (at right). And Weaver couldn’t have chosen a better crowd scene than The Last Supper. It’s a painting so crowded there’s a famed Monty Python sketch about how it was cut down from a Michaelangelo “penultimate supper” version with 28 disciples, a kangaroo, and three Christs:
Weaver’s article does make some excellent points about the photo in question, too. Here’s the photo he’s breaking down:
And some of what he wrote about it:
But in the slow-mo replay, it soon became evident to me: if Jones’ catch was a knockout blow or a buzzer-beater (happening in an impossible instant, taking a moment to register), the replay that showed the crowd’s face was a slow-developing work of art that would make the entire Renaissance envious. It was a snapshot of humanity. …
Take that in for a minute. Just let it sink in. This is George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Chuck Norris in a Ford, discussing skyscrapers while they fly over the Grand Canyon. This is a Bald Eagle eating a bear.
Well, I don’t know about that, but it is pretty amazing, and Weaver’s full breakdown of some of the most interesting people captured in that photo is definitely worth a read. It’s his insertion of Jones and the rest into The Last Supper that really stands out. da Vinci thought of lots of technology that was to come, but he probably never conceived of his painting being used like this.
[Levi Weaver on Twitter]