Christopher Witcombe stands onstage at Murchison Lane Auditorium, directing filming for his second “Art History in Just a Minute” podcast. The finished episode will tell the behind-the-scenes story of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”

“Show me a little more attitude,” the art historian and Sweet Briar College professor tells the actress, adding in his British accent that his Mona Lisa is a sassier version of da Vinci’s famous lady.

SBC's Christopher Witcombe talks about Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa" in his iTunes podcasts. As the filming goes on, Witcombe’s first podcast, da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” racks up downloads on iTunes. For those who may have been stranded on a desert island sans computer, iTunes is the Apple Computer application through which visitors can download music, movies and free podcasts.

Since its launch in December 2006, “The Last Supper” has been downloaded more than 20,000 times, not only in the U.S. and Canada but also Japan, Spain, Rwanda, Iceland, Qatar and dozens of other countries too numerous to mention.

“Mona Lisa” was submitted to iTunes on Feb. 6. In just 30 minutes, it had been downloaded more than 300 times. Both podcasts also can be viewed at Witcombe’s Web site ewart.sbc.edu.

Witcombe hopes to receive grant funding for the project, which began last summer when he had an epiphany of sorts. He was watching an online video with his youngest daughter when he thought, “I could use that for art history.”

The video was short – a minute or two long – and entertaining, Witcombe recalled, saying he later bounced his idea off coworker and Sweet Briar director of network services Aaron Mahler.

“I said, ‘I’ve got this idea of putting these short videos together on art history,’ and Aaron’s face just broke into a big grin and he said, ‘These could be great podcasts.’ ” Witcombe said.

Picking the “The Last Supper” as his first subject was a no-brainer. Last summer, Witcombe was asked to speak at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. on the controversial film, “The Da Vinci Code,” in which the Renaissance-era fresco plays an important role.

In addition to feeding into the public’s interest in Dan Brown’s novel, Witcombe said, “it provided me with an opportunity to talk about it in terms of art history. I could kill two birds with one stone.”

Witcombe’s production team is comprised of people from the Sweet Briar community. Aaron Mahler does editing, effects and encoding, and Greg Ingber – son of professors Jeff and Alix Ingber – does audio production and wrote the closing theme.

SBC student Tess Drahman was production assistant and image editor for “The Last Supper” project, and Elisabeth Mahler – wife of Aaron Mahler – implemented Witcombe’s Web site.

Actors, when needed, are gleaned from the ranks of SBC faculty and staff, and in the future, Witcombe also plans to include students.

Dozens of comments on “The Last Supper” have been posted on iTunes. “Do more! Please!!!” one reviewer wrote, and another implored, “Please, sir, may I have some more?”

One high school art teacher extolled the podcast as “an excellent resource for struggling public high school teachers,” while another viewer commented, “Part art history professor lecture, part museum docent tour and part Monty Python graphics, it’s just the ticket for a fast-paced introduction to the world of art. Give us more and do it soon.”

In addition to his podcasts, Witcombe also is the proprietor of “Art History Resources on the Web,” which has received tens of millions of visitors since 1995. In 2000, it also was one of two .edu sites chosen by Forbes Magazine as “Best of the Web.”

That success, along with a Ph.D. in art history from Bryn Mawr College, gives the guy some clout. “I’ve got good credentials, books and articles and so on. So, you’re getting the real thing,” he said of the “Art History in Just a Minute” podcasts. “But it’s in this fun, entertaining form.”

When asked if he’s a “funny guy,” Witcombe’s first reaction was to laugh. “I use humor a lot,” he said. “Humor is my defense. Not that it’s ever gotten me into trouble, I suppose, but I prefer to have witty responses, rather than talking too seriously about things.”

Although he uses humor in his work, Witcombe takes the subject of art history seriously. “If you can attach a bit of humor to a piece of valuable information, you’re more likely to remember that piece of information,” he said. “I’m all for that.

“I want to stress, though, to a certain extent that when I say, ‘entertainment’ it doesn’t have to be humorous. I like having humor in there, but I don’t want it to be thought of as a humorous take on art history. It’s still essentially serious art history but it’s done in an entertaining and humorous way. There’s a difference.”

Next in line for production is the “Venus of Willendorf,” an ancient limestone statue of a full-figured prehistoric woman, followed by Stonehenge. Witcombe also wants to present modern works by Picasso, as well as programs on the artists themselves.

“The idea is to have dozens and dozens of these things,” he said. “Initially, they’re going to be probably works of art … but at some future point I want to include artists – a podcast on Michelangelo, Picasso, Mary Cassatt or somebody – but also on art history itself … on the meaning in art, the visual elements of art, and so on.

“These things might sound kind of boring, but the idea is to show that they’re not boring at all.”