The Independent-News, Volume 100, Number 37, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 11 April 1974 — Page 18

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। Requiem for 1 W™*^^^** S V' JR* .... ■ WtV ■ U”\ Charles Goslin (left), Kansas City, Mo. artist and restaurateur Pete Christus sit before their famed mural in Pete's Case, Rocheport. Mo. The painting will be moved soon in keeping with the new owner's plans for adding a sandwich bar in the painting's place by Jim Edward Ladesich

A throng of tourists huddled inside the monastery refectory of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, transfixed by the decaying genius of Leonardo Da Vincis “The Last Supper." Some of them murmured thoughtfully to their companions. Others dreamed ahead to the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre. Charlie Goslin stood among them and daydreamed of Pete's Case. For Goslin, the masterpiece "was like seeing an old friend," memories recalling a full-size replica of the original hanging in an off-the-road restaurant outside Rocheport, Missouri. Pete's Case, midway between Kansas City and St. Louis on Interstate 70, is no roadside hash house as its name might imply. Indirect lighting from a vaulted ceiling nearly 30 feet high ' casts a romantic glow on road-weary | diners banqueting on man-size pori tions of succulent beef, spicy barbecue J and tall slices of homemade pie. The huge mural looming above the dining room is a full-scale copy of "The Last Supper," signed "Charles Goslin, Pete Chnstus, 1961." Goslin is one of the few outsiders able to explain the painting's background. "Pete’s the son of a Greek immigrant who started the business before ; the first world war" Goslin says. "His dad was a hard-working, sincere man. and very devout, values he passed on to Pete." His son wanted to be an artist so Pete Sr. sent him to study at the Kansas City Art Institute Goslin and Chnstus met there in 1949. Their friendship blossomed and Goslin thought it merely routine when Pete called him one evening in 1958 We were about to start our Thanksgiving dinner when Pete called me." Goslin recalls. He asked me if I'd paint a full-scale copy of The Last Supper'. He'd talked about it oefore A

but only then did it dawn on me that he was serious. The challenge was such that it was like launching out onto a new horizon." It would be Goslin’s third religious mural but his first attempt to copy the Renaissance master’s work. His two earlier murals hang in the Bethel Methodist Church and in the sanctuary of the Swope Parkway Church of GodHoliness. Both Kansas City murals are original compositions. With the confidence gained from the two earlier works, Goslin looked forward with eager anticipation to execute the classical art form he loved. "I looked at the painting as a study of Da Vinci,” he says. "First. I researched every major effort to copy the original painting. In this country I found two, a mosaic in Sarasota, Florida —the best. I think —and a stainedglass window at Forest Lawn Cemetery near Los Angeles. California." "Pete, who had painted a smaller, less detailed copy for his family’s first case, was full of enthusiasm. We started ours in the math hall of Kemper Military Academy and worked on it two or three months until the driving got to be too much on the icy roads." "By then, Pete was too involved with the construction of the new restaurant to have any spare time to help paint We finally decided to move the project to Kansas City where it would be closer to my home.” "Pete rigged up a suspension system for the three panels and the Kansas City College and Bible School, in Overland Park, agreed to let us use their auditorium." With pulleys, Goslin could lower the canvas to the level he wanted to paint. For the surface, he chose high-grade Belgian linen, paint used was top-qual-ity oils. Chnstus painted some of the basics, including the ornate tapestry in the background, and Goslin worked