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Arianna Baria
Professor Erick Martinez
English Basic Skills (021, 057LS, 1st Draft)
5 November 2015
Depression through Works of Art
Depression. What is it? It is a mood disorder causing a persistent feeling of
sadness and loss of interest (Depression (major Depression). N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov.
2015.). Many people in todays society experience this mood due to events they come
across. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci and The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso
both depict a theme of depression because of each paintings emotion, setting, lighting,
and balance.
Leonardo da Vinci created the Last Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie. It took
approximately three years for him to finish it because he started painting it in 1495 and
finished painting it in 1498. This is during the periods of the Italian Renaissance, High
Renaissance, and Renaissance. The genres of these paintings are Christian art and history
painting (Wikipedia).
Pablo Picasso created the Old Guitarist during Picassos Blue Period. It took
approximately one year for him to paint it because he started in 1903 and finished in
1904. He refers to it as a canvas and uses oil paint to create his sculpture (Wikipedia).
The emotions of both these paintings, the Last Supper and the Old Guitarist are
loneliness. It is quite obvious that both paintings portray that particular emotion because
in the painting of the Last Supper, each and every individual character does not have an
uplifting facial expression. The six people to the left of Jesus and the six people to the

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right of Jesus are profile and it is clear that there is some type of judgment on Jesus in the
painting. The four guys starting furthest on the left look like they are concerned about the
lady next to Jesus, who is his wife, Mary. The fourth man from the left is extremely close
to the woman and it seems as if he really has something important to say to her. However,
the man sitting next to her is just eavesdropping in the conversation that the man is
whispering to her. On the other side of the painting, the three guys furthest on the right
seem to be minding their own business and talking amongst themselves, whereas the
three guys on the right of Jesus are furiously yelling at him about a situation that is
currently bothering them. Jesus himself looks overwhelmed with all the chaos
surrounding him. It is like he is dealing with the opinions of other people but he knows
for a fact that what ever decision he does decide to go with will still lead to nothing but
failure. The woman to the left of him, Mary seems like she just wanted her husband to
succeed in what ever he is doing and her husbands failure is also her failure. Although
there are multiple people in this painting, the painting itself still represents an emotion of
loneliness because of each characters countenance. Additionally, in the painting of the
Old Guitarist, there is a man who is dressed in ripped clothing with no shoes. The man is
sitting down and he looks like he is falling asleep because of how haggard he is. It is like
the guitar is his way of escape from loneliness. The picture itself kind of reminds me of
the New York City poverty because of the haggard look from the man and the guitar as an
instrument to use to get change from people walking by.
In addition to emotions, the setting of each piece is small and compact. The
setting suites enough space for each individual included in each painting. For instance, in
the Last Supper, there are a total of thirteen people in a hallway. There is one huge table

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that can barely even fit each person. It is almost as if each person is on top of each other.
However, the painter, Leonardo da Vinci manages to squish all the guys and girl together
on the table. In the Old Guitarist, there is only one individual. I feel like the individual is
somewhat in a small compact area as well even though it is just he in the painting. I am
convinced that the majority of the picture is the old guitarist himself so it seemed like he
had no type of way to escape that setting. The emotion of loneliness in both paintings led
to a claustrophobic setting because the paintings would create a certain setting that would
only attract the audience to focusing on the human beings in each of the paintings. The
setting is basically cramped, so the details of the people are more emphasized.
Furthermore, the lighting of each painting is remotely incandescent. In the Last
Supper, it seems like the only light source the humans have are through the window and
that is socially acceptable because during that period when the painting is being made,
the only light access would be from the sun. Likewise, in the Old Guitarist, the only
lighting is from the glare of the moon because the painting is set during the night,
whereas the Last Supper is set during the day. The lack of lighting in both paintings
shows that the setting is overall gloomy.
Moreover, the balances in both paintings are somewhat equal. In the Last Supper,
there are six people on each side of the center person, which is Jesus. In the background
there are four doors on the left and right walls. And in the back of the picture, there are
three windows with the middle as the biggest and the two smaller, yet the same size. I
would say this painting is overall balanced despite all the people being on top of one
another. However, the Old Guitarist is not really balanced because the posture of the man
is clearly horrible. The guitar is upright but the man is not involved in the instrument as

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much as he should be. This kind of gives a deceiving connotation to the audience because
it seems like the man is not really intrigued in the instrument he is playing. This painting
overall is not balanced because of the bad posture withheld with the individual. Aside
from the people being a reason why the paintings are not balanced, the colors are also a
reason why it is not balanced. In the Last Supper, there are more of warm colors than cool
colors, whereas in the Old Guitarist, it is vice versa, where there are more cool colors
than warm colors.
The meaning behind the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci is betrayal. Jesus
declared that one of them [would] betray him (Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov.
2015.). By them, Jesus is referring to the individuals surrounding him because if you
truly look closely to the painting, there is a weapon that the man whispering in Marys ear
is holding. Essentially the reason why the painting is called The Last Supper is because
it is Jesus last meal before he dies. The meaning behind the Old Guitarist by Pablo
Picasso is sympathy. The portrait itself is created after Picassos close friend passed away.
Picasso is grieving through art and portrays the idea of miseries of the poor, the ill, and
those cast out of society in his piece of art (The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.).
. The reason that the man is off balanced is because he is blind, and he is bending down
closer to the guitar to listen for the sounds he can make.
It is evident that I did not quite understand the paintings in such depth as the
painters, but I strongly believe that that is just a process of seeing a portrait for the first
time. It is like the saying, dont judge a book by its cover because whatever you see on
the outside can turn out to be completely different to your first impression. Based on the

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emotions, setting, lighting, balance, I am able to at least get a mere understanding of the
theme of both paintings, which is depression.

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Work Cited
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Depression (major Depression). N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.