][1]Increasing portion size is not necessarily a modern phenomenon according to the authors of a scientific study in the International Journal of Obesity.
Thanks to films such as Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 Super Size Me and books like Eric Schlosser’s 2001 Fast Food Nation, you might think that larger portion sizes are a fairly new thing.
However, by studying 52 famous paintings of The Last Supper, a Professor Wansink and his brother Craig, have found that the portion size depeicted in different versions of the painting grew by just under 70% over the course of the last millenium.
The earliest paintings showed Christ and his disciples sharing a fairly modest meal. By the time Tintoretto painted his depiction of The Last Supper at the tail-end of the 16th century, the scene looks more like a banquet with serving staff fetching plates of sweetmeats to the table.
It would be interesting to see a modern artist’s take on The Last Supper. Would Banksy set The Last Supper at an all you can eat Chinese buffet? Perhaps Damien Hirst would have Christ dishing out the Happy Meals.