During an art history class that Brown was studying, he became aware of various discrepancies in da Vinci's famous painting of The Last Supper. Brown went on to explain that this served as a reintroduction to the painting that was familiar to millions, yet rarely studied in fine detail by the public. Intrigued, he started to research it in more detail, which ultimately led to the writing of his cult bestseller The Da Vinci Code.
In his own words, "I was studying art history at the University of Seville (in Spain), and one morning our professor started class in a most unusual way. He showed us a slide of Da Vinci's famous painting The Last Supper... I had seen the painting many times, yet somehow I had never seen the strange anomalies that the professor began pointing out: a hand clutching a dagger, a disciple making a threatening gesture across the neck of another... and much to my surprise, a very obvious omission, the apparent absence on the table of the cup of Christ... The one physical object that in many ways defines that moment in history, Leonardo Da Vinci chose to omit."
