I just went to a really good presentation on DVC, and the speaker raised a great idea. Brown says there's no cup depicted b/c MM is the Holy Grail. But the speaker pointed out that the picture depicts a moment when Jesus and the Apostles are still eating. The Eucharist came at the end of meal, so naturally, daVinci didn't bother to depict the cup. The picture is about betrayal, not about the Eucharist.

Did anyone else get that from the painting?

No, that is wrong, there are in fact 13 cups on the table, count them and you will see. There is no 'missing cup', Dan Brown is either lying or stupid if he claims that there are only 12.

I couldn't see a single one. Where are they? There's lots of food because they're mid meal, but I don't see any cups.

Where is your picture? Are you looking at an online resource? If so, then you need to know that the pictures online are very grainy, and frankly not very good. Moreover, the painting is very old, and has been deteriorating rapidly since it was first finished, thus you can't make out a lot of the details of the painting just by looking at a photograph of it, especially if the photograph is published online.

Also, there has been a total restoration of the painting in recent years (I believe it was finished in 1999), a lot of the dirt etc has been removed, so the details are much clearer than they used to be.

For example, Dan Brown makes a big deal out of the fact that there appears to be a disembodied arm holding a knife, but after the restoration it is not clear that the allegedly 'disembodied arm' is actually connected to the apostle Peter, it is 'mysterious' no more.


Bottom line is, if you can't see all the cups, it is probably because you have a poor quality reproduction of it. Find a better picture.

Some say it is in Italy, others say it is in Switzerland and still others say it is in North Caralina.