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| Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper (ca. 1495-1497) |
One of the most well-recognized artworks of the world, like many other pieces of the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. It appeared numerous times in popular culture, lately in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code giving a new iconographic explanation of the mural. The famous fresco in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan, Italy. It was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan of that time, whose court Leonardo worked in.
Leonardo's Last Supper depicts the moment when Jesus announces to his Disciples that one of them would betray him. The scene becomes dynamic by the fervent reactions of the Twelve Disciples to the announcement. According to records, Leonardo was eagerly looking for the best models to study various expressions, not only on the face, but the hands too. The picture plane is designed with linear perspective to provide the sense of a three-dimensional space. Space-designing with linear perspective is a novelty appeared exactly in Renaissance painting. The converging lines meet in a vanishing point which, in the case of this picture, is in the right-eye of Jesus. This leads the eye of the viewer to the head of Jesus, the protagonist of the scene. Leonardo divided the Disciples into four groups and it is the first time that Judas is on the same side of the table with the others (in Medieval times, he is usually depicted on the opposite side to lay emphasis on his betrayal). He appeares on the left of Jesus in green and blue, clutching the bag of the thirty silver coins. In the three lunettes there are the heraldic symbols of the members of the Sforza family: Ludovico's combined coat of arms with his wife's Beatrice d'Este's in the middle, his first son's Massimiliano's on the right and his second son's Franceso's on the left.
I was lucky to see the painting during my Erasmus year in Milan and it remains a remarkable memory. Visitors are let inside the refectory in every 15 minutes and you have these 15 minutes to study the mural as much as you can. I remember I was surprised how dead are the colours of the painting (even though I knew about it's bad conditions) and it was lighted by a strange blue light which gave the feeling of a Power-point presentation projected on the wall. Anyways, it is a great work of art indeed.
Leonardo's Last Supper depicts the moment when Jesus announces to his Disciples that one of them would betray him. The scene becomes dynamic by the fervent reactions of the Twelve Disciples to the announcement. According to records, Leonardo was eagerly looking for the best models to study various expressions, not only on the face, but the hands too. The picture plane is designed with linear perspective to provide the sense of a three-dimensional space. Space-designing with linear perspective is a novelty appeared exactly in Renaissance painting. The converging lines meet in a vanishing point which, in the case of this picture, is in the right-eye of Jesus. This leads the eye of the viewer to the head of Jesus, the protagonist of the scene. Leonardo divided the Disciples into four groups and it is the first time that Judas is on the same side of the table with the others (in Medieval times, he is usually depicted on the opposite side to lay emphasis on his betrayal). He appeares on the left of Jesus in green and blue, clutching the bag of the thirty silver coins. In the three lunettes there are the heraldic symbols of the members of the Sforza family: Ludovico's combined coat of arms with his wife's Beatrice d'Este's in the middle, his first son's Massimiliano's on the right and his second son's Franceso's on the left.
I was lucky to see the painting during my Erasmus year in Milan and it remains a remarkable memory. Visitors are let inside the refectory in every 15 minutes and you have these 15 minutes to study the mural as much as you can. I remember I was surprised how dead are the colours of the painting (even though I knew about it's bad conditions) and it was lighted by a strange blue light which gave the feeling of a Power-point presentation projected on the wall. Anyways, it is a great work of art indeed.
From: T. A.
Date: July 2012
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