Journal of Literary Criticism

Journal of Literary Criticism

A Study of the Intersemiotic Translation of the Pictorial Spaces of Leonardo da Vinci’s and Andy Warhol’s Last Supper Based on Yuri Lotman’s Cultural Semiosphere

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Professor, Department of French Language, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Ph.D. Graduate, Art Research, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Art, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/jlc.2026.580230.1831
Abstract
meaning and the organization of collective experience. Whenever an image is reproduced or reinterpreted within a new cultural context, a translational process emerges in which semiotic boundaries are transformed and meaning is organized within a new network of cultural relations. Yuri Lotman’s theory of the cultural semiosphere provides a theoretical framework for understanding this process; according to this perspective, meaning undergoes transformation through the interaction between “self” and “other” and in its movement from the cultural center toward the sphere of popular culture.The present study has been conducted using a qualitative approach and a comparative method, and the data have been collected from library sources and the analysis of visual texts. In this study, the reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in the works of Andy Warhol is examined as the transfer of a sacred image from classical cultural memory to contemporary visual culture. The main issue is how the translation of pictorial spaces between two non-synchronous semiospheres transforms the semantic structure of the image, the perceptual experience of the audience, and the position of the sacred. The findings indicate that in Da Vinci’s work meaning is stabilized within a center-oriented, faith-based structure, whereas in Warhol’s works the image enters media circulation and sacred meaning shifts from a fixed state to a fluid, multi-centered condition. In this transition, aesthetic experience moves from individual contemplation to collective consumption, and the image transforms from cultural memory into a circulating sign within visual culture.
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Volume 10, Issue 20
September 2026
Pages 482-445

  • Receive Date 02 May 2026
  • Accept Date 16 May 2026