60秒科学:《最后的晚餐》各画作中食物份量不断（在线收听）

近日，美国两位学者对1000年至2000年间绘制的52幅以“最后的晚餐”为主题的著名画作进行分析比较后发现，在这一时期内，画中摆放在耶稣和他的信徒面前的食物份量不断增加。

研究人员采用电脑设计技术对画中的主菜、面包和餐盘进行了扫描，并计算出食物的尺寸与画中人物头的尺寸之间的比例。

研究人员发现，在这一千多年间，画中的主菜、餐盘和面包的尺寸分别增加了69.2%、65.6%和23.1%。

The Last Supper. The final time that the apostles shared a meal with Jesus. They gathered together, listened to a sermon and really chowed down. At least if you believe more modern depictions. Because over the past thousand years, the portion size of the food shown in paintings of the Last Supper has grown larger. That finding, by researchers and brothers Brian and Craig Wansink, is dished up in the <i>International Journal of Obesity</i>.  Brian studies eating habits at Cornell, while Craig is a religion professor at Virginia Wesleyan. Which puts them at the head of the table for this research effort.

Da Vinci’s is the most well known Last Supper, but it’s joined by more than 50 other noteworthy interpretations produced in the last millennium. The guest list remains the same in the various paintings, and the people stay lithe. But the Wansinks measured the portion sizes in 52 Last Suppers, and found that the bread was 23 percent bigger in more modern paintings, while the entrees grew a whopping 70 percent. As measured against a constant: the apostles' heads. So the trend toward larger portions may have started centuries ago, culminating with the modern, supersized supper, last or otherwise.

—Karen Hopkin