ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses contemporary Chinese artist Meng Yan’s recent works, focusing on two monumental paintings The Last Supper and The Divine Comedy, produced in 2008–2016 and 2006–2016. It compares The Last Supper with Leonardo DaVinci’s work and the texts in the Bible and analyzes The Divine Comedy content in relation to Dante’s text and theological frameworks. Both paintings represent a purgatorial world of human beings, filled with money, power, and lust. They are symbolic of the transformation of Chinese society, culture, and civilization today from pre-modern to modern times, from the age of power politics to the age of a capital-based economy, and from the age of pre-Christianity to the age of Christianity in today’s China. Finally, the essay considers the origin of the paintings, which should be connected with Meng Yan’s earlier artworks.
