Angel in a Wooden Bra / Page 6 of 20


	the tourist visits Leonardo's last supper they allow you to approach Leonardo di Vinci's Last Supper fresco through a series of 4 air locks. a view of the gardens while you wait between doors just long enough that you begin to suspect they're checking you for bugs or analyzing the fibers of your clothes. a soft voice repeats small phrases on the painting's importance and pointing out the different shades of blue in hushed golf announcer tones as if, after a 2 hour wait in a stone courtyard on a hot, humid day, you might have wandered in by accident. this 20 foot fresco was already old when Napoleon used the chapel for a stable. it was already old when the allies bombed away the roof and one side wall during World War II and it stood for long years in the rain and open air. nobody knows when they cut a doorway in the middle of it, removing Christ's feet beneath the table. the graffiti on Italian trains and buses is magnificent, 10 color murals mixing words from 5 languages with minatures of the countryside. no one bothers to sandblast it away. no doubt, centuries from now, our descendents will stand on line for hours to view the sides of late twentieth century trains.

the tourist visits Leonardo's last supper