da Vinci’s Last Supper

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The
condition of
Leonardo da Vinci’s
painted masterpiece,
The Last Supper
is irreversible
.

It’s painted
directly on the wall
of the building, and
can’t be removed
or reframed
.

Leonardo
tried an experiment
for this commission
using tempura & oil
on plastered stone
.
The technique is
widely considered
to be a failure
.

It was
completed
around 1498 but
within 50 years the
paint had begun to
flake and decay
.

After seven attempts
to repair it, much
of the original
paint is
lost
.

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A
Closer Look

Recently,

Google
Arts and
Culture

collaborated
with

The Royal
Academy
of Arts

to create
“the most accurate
record of the original”,
a digitized gigapixel scan
of another oil painting by
Leonardo da Vinci’s
studio workers
.
This version was
painted as a copy in
the early 1500s, but
is in much better
condition
.

(the students
used oil paints
on canvas)

Here’s a
comparison
:

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For a closer look,
this scan is available at
Google Arts & Culture
:

You can zoom in and
out to see the details

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The following images are
captured from the scan
:

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“One of them
looks like a girl.
Is that Mary?”

The
author
Dan Brown
stirred up some
excitement in his
“Da Vinci Code” thriller
by suggesting that Mary
Magdalene sits at the
right hand of
Jesus
.
It isn’t true
.
Mary was not listed
among the people at the table
in any of the four Gospels, so
it would have been heresy
for Leonardo to paint
her there
.
He was
an innovator,
and was known to
experiment, but he wouldn’t
have risked offending the Pope,
the church and his employer
in such a blatantly
obvious way
.
This period
of church history
was not a time of free
expression in regard to
religious beliefs
.
(Galileo would agree!)

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Eye
of the
Beholder

Leonardo
has painted a scene
from Chapter 26 of the
Gospel according to Matthew,
at the moment when Jesus has
announced his betrayal
.
There are clues to
help us distinguish
Who is Who
.
For example,
Judas is clutching a bag
(filled with 30 silver coins?)
and he has spilled the salt
(a superstitious omen).
Both he and Jesus are
reaching towards
the same spot
.
This
reminds
us of the verse:

“The one who has
dipped his hand into
the bowl with me
will betray me…”

MATTHEW 26:23

Here’s what
an art critic was
saying about it over
400 years ago:

“Leonardo
imagined, and has
succeeded in expressing,
the desire that has entered
the minds of the apostles to
know who is betraying
their Master
.
So in the face of
each one may be seen
love, fear, indignation,
or grief at not being
able to understand
the meaning of
Christ;
and this
excites no less
astonishment than
the obstinate hatred
and treachery to be
seen in Judas.”

Georgio Vasari
Lives of the Artists, 1568
translated by George Bull

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Well, I’m not sure I see
“obstinate hatred and treachery”
in Judas’ face, but wrestling
with the opinions of critics
is nothing new, right?

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A
Scene
of Betrayal

Let’s consider
the deeper meaning
…

Leonardo has
accepted a commission
to paint the entire wall of
a huge dining room in a
religious institution,
and he knows his
audience is
devout
.
His
viewers
will be very
familiar with the
story of the last supper,
and will see this painting
every single day for
as long as they
reside at the
convent
.

What could
be more appropriate
than painting a dining scene
from the most significant
meal in history
???

Many artists
would have tried to
impart a reminder of the
holiest aspect of the event,
the establishment of the
Eucharist, in which
His followers will

…
Do This
in Memory
of Me

Luke 22:19

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Leonardo
goes in a
different
direction
.

Every detail in
the painting points to
the reaction of Jesus’ friends
as he announces that one
of them will betray him
.

He draws
our attention to
the most human aspect;
the shock, and anger
and bewilderment
of betrayal by a
former friend
.

Bossi
was thinking
along similar lines.
Here’s a quote from
him from the year
1810
:

Unlike
his predecessors,
Leonardo was not con-
tent with the approval
of religious souls
.
Rather,
he wished
to engage the
spirits of all men
capable of feeling,
men of all times and
of every creed, to
engage all those
hearts to whom
friendship and
the horror of
treason are
not unknown
.

Guiseppe Bossi,
Del Cenacolo di
Leonardo da Vinci,
Milan, 1810, p.78

The painting is in
its original location,
over 28 feet long and
15 feet high on the
dining room wall
of the former
Dominican
convent
of

Santa Maria
delle Grazie

which
has now been
converted to the

Milan Museum
.

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On a
Lighter Note…

As you might imagine,
any popular artwork
attracts copy-cats
.

Here’s a movie poster.
Can you see a similarity
?

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No
.

We can’t
end it with
that one
.

Here’s a more
serious piece by
Susan Dorothea White,
but she named hers
“The First Supper”
:

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Photography by Adi Nes (Israel),
last sold in 2007 for $264,000
:

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(maybe just one more?)

This one is made with
chocolate syrup
!

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thanks for visiting
come back soon

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