The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)
The Last Supper (Italian: Il cenacolo or L'ultima cena) is a wall painting original by Leonardo da Vinci executed between 1495 and 1498. It is found on the wall on which it was originally painted, in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan (Italy), declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. The painting was made for his patron, Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan. It is not a traditional fresco, but a mural executed in tempera and oil on two layers of plaster preparation spread over plaster. It measures 460 cm high by 880 cm wide. Many experts and art historians consider The Last Supper as one of the best pictorial works in the world.
Author
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452. At the age of 14 he entered the prestigious workshop of the Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio, where he studied with Sandro Botticelli and Pietro Perugino. He developed the study of mathematics, geometry, perspective and all the sciences of observation of the natural environment, which were considered indispensable at the time. As a complementary education, he also studied architecture and engineering. Leonardo was a Renaissance humanist, outstanding in multiple disciplines. He served people as different and influential as Lorenzo de' Medici, Ludovico Sforza, the sovereigns of Mantua (Francis II Gonzaga and Isabel de East) and King Francis I of France.
History
In principle it was a modest commission. In Santa María, the convent of the Dominicans near the palace, the Duke had sent to erect a church. In the brothers' refectory, Milanés Montorfano had painted a crucifixion, whose lower part Leonardo added the portrait of the donors: Ludovico, his wife and two children. Leonardo also collaborated in the execution of the medallions and other mural ornaments With the weapons of the Spaniards, as if he wanted to prove the skill of his hand first for the great task that was coming.
Leonardo created the last dinner , one of his best works, the most serene and away from the temporal world, during those years characterized by war conflicts, intrigues, concerns and calamities. It is believed that in 1494 the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza El Moro commissioned Leonardo to carry out a fresco for the refectory of the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, Milan. This would explain the ducal badges that are graffiti in the three upper luns. Leonardo worked in this work faster and with greater continuity than ever for about three years. In some way, his nature, which he tended towards colossalism, knew how to find in this painting a task that absorbed it completely, forcing the artist to Finish it.
In his novel LVIII, Matteo Bandello, who knew Leonardo well, writes that he observed him many times
...in the early morning get on the scaffold, because Last dinner He was a little tall; from the time the Sun came out until the last hour of the afternoon he was there, without ever taking the brush off his hand, forgetting to eat and drink, painting continually. Then he knew to be two, three or four days, that he did not paint, and yet he stayed there one or two hours each day and only contemplated, considered and examined for himself, the figures he had painted. I also saw it, what seemed to be the case of simpleness or eccentricity, when the Sun is high, leaving its workshop in the old court"—on the place of the present Palazzo Reale— "where there was that amazing Horse composed of land, and coming straight to the convent of the Thanks: and going up to the scaffolding take the brush, and give one or two brushstrokes to one of those figures, and leave without entertaining.
This way of painting, so different from the speed and security required by the traditional fresco painting, explains that the painter will opt for a different technique and also delayed his finish for years.
Giorgio Vasari, in his vite , also describes in detail how he worked it, how some days he would paint like a fury, and others would spend hours just looking at him, and how he walked through the streets of the city looking for A face for Judas, the traitor; In this regard, the anecdote tells that this way of working impatient the prior of the convent and this went to complain to the Duke, who called the painter to ask him to accelerate the work:
Leonardo explained that the men of his genius sometimes produce more when they work less, for having the mind occupied in specifying ideas that were ultimately resolved in form and expression. He also informed the Duke that he still lacked models for the figures of the Saviour and Judas; (...) he feared that it would not be possible to find anyone who, having received so many benefits from his Lord, as Judas, possessed such a depraved heart until he betrayed him. He added that if, continuing his effort, he could not find it, he would have to put as Judas' face the portrait of the impertinent and quisquilloso prior.
Likewise, the writer Giambattista Giraldi echoed this way of working based on his father's memories:
Before painting a figure, he first studied his nature and appearance [...] When a clear idea had been formed, he went to the places where he knew that he would find people of the kind he sought, and watched with attention his faces, behaviors, customs and movements. I barely saw anything that could serve him for his purposes, drawing him in pencil in the notebook that always led to the waist. This proceeding repeated it as many times as it judged necessary to shape the work it had in mind. Then he put all this into a figure that, once created, moved the astonishment.
Thus, Leonardo carefully observed life models, but it was not common at that time. In general, the known and already tested types were copied; Some artists repeated over and over again throughout their lives a type that had turned out well and had been successful, such as, for example, Perugino, Leonardo's classmate. This, however, was never repeated; He always considered each of his works a completely new task, peculiar and different from the previous one. Leonardo sought to provide his figures with the greatest possible diversity and maximum movement and contrast. In his book on painting he advises "The movements of people are as different as the moods that arise in their souls, and each of them moves people to different degrees [...]". In another passage refers to the effect of contrasts «[...] The ugly next to the beautiful, the big next to the small, the old next to the young, the strong next to the weak: we must alternate and confront these extremes as much as possible.» This proximity and antagonism of the figures is what gives The Last Supper its richness: Judas, the evil one/John, the beautiful and good; old heads/young heads; excited people/calm people. Although the world can appreciate the innovative nature of the painting in the countless subsequent imitations and reproductions, the work produces an effect of serenity and simplicity, of concentration around the core of the scene that unfolds in it.
In 1497 the Duke of Milan asked the artist to complete the Last Supper, which he probably finished at the end of the year. Andrés García Corneille, in his book Da Vinci, comments that "when Leonardo began his work, he knew that it would take a lot of time and that he would hardly see much money for it (since it involved the request of a duke), something that openly contravened the regulations of the artists' guild to which he belonged, and without whose consent it was impossible to execute a work in Florence. In fact, he never asked for a single cent for the work he did, something that surprised the Duke and he did not say a word.
When finished, the painting was praised as a masterpiece of design and characterization. He finished it, although, eternally dissatisfied, he declared that he would have to continue working on it. It was displayed for all to see and contemplated by many. The fame that the "great horse" had brought about was established on more solid foundations. From that moment on he was considered without a doubt not only one of the first masters of Italy but also the first. Artists came from far away to the refectory of the convent of Santa María delle Grazie, looked at the painting carefully, copied it and discussed it.. The king of France, upon entering Milan, toyed with the idea of removing the fresco from the wall to take it to his country.
It soon became evident, however, that as soon as it was finished it was already beginning to detach from the wall. Unfortunately, the experimental use of oil on dry plaster caused technical problems that led to its rapid deterioration around the year 1500, which led to numerous restorations of the magnificent work. Leonardo, instead of using the reliable fresco technique, which required a speed of execution unlike him, had experimented with different paint binding agents, which were affected by mold and flaked off.
Since 1726, unsuccessful attempts at restoration and conservation were carried out. Goethe, who saw the room with few transformations in 1788, describes it like this:
In front of the entrance, in the narrowest area and at the bottom of the room, was the table of the prior, and on both sides the remaining monks, placed on a kind of gravel at a certain height of the ground. Suddenly, when one walked in, he saw painted on the fourth wall and on the doors the fourth table, with Jesus and the Apostles sitting there as if they were one more group of the meeting. The time to eat, when the tables of the prior and of Christ were in front of us, enclosing in the midst of the other monks, had to be, by force, a scene worthy to see.
In 1977 a restoration program was started using the most modern technologies, as a result of which some improvements have been experienced; The team of restorers was led by Pinin Brambilla. Although most of the original surface has been lost, the grandeur of the composition and the physiognomic and psychological penetration of the characters give a vague vision of its past splendor.
The painting has remained one of the most reproduced works of art, with countless copies made in all types of media, from rugs to cameos. Already in the XVI century it began to be reproduced by several painters, thanks to which several copies survive that testify to what it could have been like in its original state. One of the earliest and best-known copies, painted life-size by Giampietrino, is kept at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Analysis
Leonardo has chosen, perhaps at the suggestion of the Dominicans, perhaps the most dramatic moment. It represents the scene of the last supper of the last days of the life of Jesus of Nazareth as narrated in the New Testament. The painting is based on John 13:21 , in which Jesus announces that one of his twelve disciples will betray him.
At the hour, Jesus sat at the table with the apostles and said to them, "I had a great desire to eat this Passover with you before suffering. For I tell you that I will no longer eat it until it is the new and perfect Passover in the Kingdom of God, for one of you will betray me."
Jesus' statement "one of you will betray me" causes consternation in the twelve followers of Jesus, and that is the moment that Leonardo represents, trying to reflect "the movements of the soul", the different individualized reactions of each of the Twelve apostles: some are amazed, others rise because they have not heard well, others frighten, and, finally, Judas goes back to feeling alluded to.
Although it is based on the preceding representations of Ghirlandio and Andrea del Castagno, Leonardo creates a new formulation. As can be seen in the preparatory drawing, Leonardo initially thought of the classical composition, with Judas in front of the table, and the other eleven apostles in front, with Jesus Christ in the middle as one more. Leonardo departed from this iconographic tradition and includes Judas among the other apostles, because he has chosen another moment, the after his announcement that one will betray him. Leonardo changed the position of Jesus Christ, who was initially in profile talking to John Evangelist, who seems standing by his side (there is another apostle that was also standing), and places him in the center, towards which all the lines of Fugging, highlighting even more when profiling against the window of the center, topped with an arc and separating it from the apostles. On both sides of Jesus Christ, isolated in the form of a triangle and highlighted with red and blue colors, there are the apostles, grouped three in three.
The table with the thirteen characters is framed in a classical architecture represented exactly through the linear perspective, specifically central, so that it seems to expand the space of the refectory as if it were a trapTojo except for the different height of the point of the point of Vista and the monumental format of the figures. This is achieved through the representation of the pavement, the table, the side upholstery, the three windows of the background and, in short, the roof cassetons. This construction construction is the highlight of the picture.
The scene seems to be bathed by the light of the three backgrounds of the background, in which a twilight sky is glimpsed, in the same way as by the light that would enter through the true window of the refectory. This luminosity, as well as the colorful fresco, have been highlighted through the last restoration. The twelve apostles are distributed in four groups of three. This follows a scheme of Platonic triads, according to the Florentina School of Ficino and Mirandola. Analyzing from left to right, in the second triad is Judas, whose betrayal breaks the triad, placing him out of it. The third triad develops the theory of platonic love. Love is the desire for beauty, the essence of God is love and the soul goes towards his love intoxicated. In the fourth triad Plato, Ficino and perhaps Leonardo himself is observed; It deals with the philosophical dialogue that leads to the truth of Christ.
Bartolomé, Santiago el Menor and Andrés.
Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter and John.
Tomás, Santiago el Mayor and Felipe.
Matthew, Judas Tadeo and Simon Zelote.
Study for the Last Supper, one of the Apostles
Study on the provision of the Apostles around the table
Study on the Face of Christ
The great fame of this work has aroused the interest of many researchers and also some novelists who seek to solve the supposed mysteries and enigmas that surround it. For example, Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett, in their book The Templar Revelation, and Dan Brown, in his novel The Da Vinci Code, claim that the figure to the right of Jesus (left as you look at it) is not actually John, but a female figure. This statement can be refuted by observing Leonardo's drawings where it is seen that he is the youngest apostle, John. The multiple works of art that have been inspired by the painting and the existing parodies contribute to making The Last Supper in one of the most magnificent works in the history of art.
The celebrity of the painting earned him numerous copies already in his time which, taking into account the deterioration of the original, have some importance. On a natural scale, the one by the Renaissance painter Giampetrino is highly recognized, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and another on a smaller scale attributed to Marco d'Oggiono, an oil on canvas found in the National Museum of the Renaissance located at Écouen Castle (France). Less well known are a Roman mosaic made between 1809 and 1814 by Giacomo Raffaelli and installed in the Minorite church or Minoritenkirche in Vienna, the anonymous Renaissance one from the Tongerlo Abbey museum (Belgium), apparently retouched by Leonardo himself, as well like the Renaissance one by Cesare da Sesto in the parish church of San Ambrose in Ponte Capriasca, near Lugano. In the Vatican Pinacoteca there is also a tapestry that represents the same painting made in Flanders and given by Francis I of France to Pope Clement VII in 1533. Another has recently been discovered in a Capuchin monastery abandoned in 1915 in Saracena (Cosenza), founded in 1588 and which can only be accessed on foot; but it is very deteriorated.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Preparatory drawings
Final observations
Copies
Contenido relacionado
Fermin of Amiens
Madrasa
Monument to Frederick the Great