Description
The Last Supper – Leonardo da Vinci
| Year of Creation: | approx 1500 |
| Original size: | 794 cm x 418 cm |
| Paint style: | High Renaissance |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Da Vinci Museum, Tongerlo |
The depiction of the Last Supper in Christian art has been tackled by various painters for several centuries, however, the most famous fresco by Leonardo da Vinci from the late 1490s in Milan, Italy.
The Last Supper is, next to the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a fresco of original size 460 × 880 cm. It can be found in the Dominican monastery next to the church of Santa Maria della Grazia in Milan.
The painting/fresco shows damage and paint loss, which is the result of Leonardo’s attempt to use newly developed colors for painting. Leonardo painted “The Last Supper” with a mixture of oil and tempera. The color combination is vapor barrier and the paint layer did not manage to sufficiently remove moisture from the wall. The result is the flaking of the bark, which is still visible and present today.
The fresco is da Vinci‘s important and often analyzed work from his Milan period. Contrary to the usual interpretation of the Last Supper, he chose the moment when Jesus informs his disciples that one of them will betray him.
The group on the fresco is characterized and significant by the gestures of the participants and facial expressions that have never been depicted in this form before.
Although Leonardo divided the apostles into four clear groups of three people each, and in this way created an effect of non-compulsion, they remained connected as a whole by different gestures.
The viewer of the fresco can feel the tension within the group, in the middle of which is only Christ, balance the situation and offer a solution.
The Last Supper fresco greatly influenced the development and creation of Christianity. The mass as we know it today was formed from the rites that followed the depiction of socializing at dinner in the painting.
The painting has also inspired other painters throughout history, who interpreted it in their own way, but remained faithful to its original idea.
