Leonardo da Vinci was already a well known artist when he created his masterpiece
The Last Supper. He painted it on the back wall of the dining hall at the Dominican
convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie in Italy. The reason the painting is laid out
the way it is is that Leonardo was trying to "extend the room", to make
it look like Jesus and his apostles were sitting at the end of the dining hall.
This painting became an instant famous work, for many reasons.
The painting depicts the very moment that Jesus said to his disciples:
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did
eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they
were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord,
is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,
the same shall betray me. --Matthew 26
The disciples are all reacting in horror to the thought that someone at that
table would betray their master. Ravensburger HistoryRavensburger Spieleverlag GmbH is a German game company and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market.
The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier with seat in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began publishing in 1883 with his first author contract. He started publishing instruction folders for craftsmen and architects, which soon acquired him a solid financial basis. His first board game appeared in 1884, named "Journey around the world".
At the turn of the 20th century, his product line broadened to include picture books, books, children’s activity books, Art Instruction manuals, non-fiction books, and reference books as well as children’s games, Happy Families and activity kits. In 1900, the Ravensburger blue triangle trademark was registered with the Imperial Patent office. As of 1912, many board and activity games had an export version that was distributed to Western Europe, the countries of the Danube Monarchy as well as Russia.
Before the First World War, Ravensburger had around 800 products. The publishing house was damaged during the Second World War and continued to produce games in the years of the reconstruction. The company focused on children's games and books and specialized books for art, architecture and hobbies, and from 1962 grew strongly. The company started to produce jigsaw puzzle games in 1964, and in the same year opened subsidiaries in Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In 1977 the company split into a book publishing arm and a game publishing arm.
Today there are approximately 1,800 available books and 850 games as well as puzzles, hobby products and CD-ROM titles at Ravensburger and its subsidiaries, which include Alea for "hobby and ardent game players" and FX Schmid for games and children's books. Ravensburger products are exported to more than fifty countries.
In September 2010, Ravensburger broke Educa's record for the world's largest jigsaw puzzle of 24,000 pieces. Ravensburger's new puzzle design by late pop artist Keith Haring titled, 'Keith Haring: Double Retrospect' breaks the Guinness Book of World Records measuring 17' × 6' built from 32,256 pieces and comes with its own dolly cart for toting. |