How are you?
On every Thursday, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 4th story for this week is
"The Last Supper" by Italian artist of the Renaissance, Leonardo da
Vinci.
The Last Supper is a painting on
the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, painted by Italian artist
Leonardo da Vinci. The painting is believed to have
started in 1495 and completed in 1498, and Ludovico Sforza, who was Duke of
Milan and Da Vinci's patron, commissioned Da Vinci as part of a plan to renovate
the church and its monastic buildings.
It is the painting depicting the moment
when Jesus foresaw that one of his twelve apostles would betray him as he has
the last supper with them before he was crucified. Da Vinci brilliantly
portrayed the twelve apostles' different reactions with surprise at this
moment.
This painting is a huge mural
with a size of 180 x 360 inches, and numerous restorations have been made until
the last one in 1999, but only little of the original painting remains today.
The painting as it looked in the 1970s
The room with this painting was
not a dining room when Da Vinci painted, but it is currently used as a dining
room, and the opposite wall, on which this painting is existed, is covered with
a fresco titled "Crucifixion" by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano.
Crucifixion, opposite Leonardo's Last Supper, Giovanni Donato
Da Vinci drew this painting from
1495 to 1498, but he did not continuously work. As a result, there is an
anecdote that a man in the monastery at that time complained about the delay of
the painting to Da Vinci. The main reason why the painting
work was delayed is that it was difficult to find a suitable real face matching
with Judas. It is known that Da Vinci reflected the faces of real people in and
around Milan for the figures in the painting. But the most difficult thing was to
find Judas’ face, and Da Vinci wandered streets and even visited the prisons of
Milan to find the face.
As a result, when the work was
delayed, a man in the monastery complained to Da Vinci, and for excusing it, he
wrote a letter to the head of the monastery as he was struggling to find the
perfect face matching with the wicked Judas, and if he could not find it, he
would use the man's face, who complained about the painting’s delay, as a model
for Judas.
As I said earlier, this painting
reflects the reaction of each apostle when Jesus tells his apostles that one of
them will betray him. Before the 19th century, only Judas, Peter, John, and
Jesus were able to be identified with certainty, but as a document was
discovered in the 19th century, all the apostles could be identified.
The
figures in this painting, except Jesus, form a group of three, and I will organize
them into groups by figures, from left to right in the painting.
1. Bartholomew, James, son of
Alphaeus, and Andrew: All three are surprised at the story of Jesus.
2. Judas Iscariot, Peter, and
John: Judas looks withdrawn as his plan is suddenly revealed. He holds a small
sack, which is presumed to symbolize the silver he received in exchange for
betraying Jesus. Also, Judas is the only person who has his elbow on the table, and
his head is also the lowest in the painting. Peter is angry and holding a knife
as it foretells his violent reaction in Gethsemane during the arrest of Jesus.
He is also touching John's shoulders, leaning towards him. The youngest
apostle, John, appears to be stunned and he is leaning towards Peter.
3. Jesus: It is the figure in the
middle of the painting.
4. Thomas, James the Greater, and
Philip: Thomas is apparently angry, and the index finger he raised in the air
seems to foretell his distrust of Jesus' Resurrection. James is confused with
his arms raised in the air. Meanwhile, Philip seems to be asking Jesus to
explain the story.
5. Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and
Simon the Zealot: Matthew and Thaddeus are looking at Simon, and they are probably
trying to ask him if he knows the answer to Jesus' story.
Besides Da Vinci, there are many
painters who have drawn last supper, most of which excluded Judas unlike Da
Vinci's paintings, by placing him alone on the opposite side of the table from
the other eleven apostles and Jesus, or placing halos around all the apostles except
Judas.
It is known that two early copies
of The Last Supper exist, presumed to be works by Da Vinci's assistants. The
copies are almost the same size as the original painting, and works that
preserve details well that cannot be seen in the original painting. One of them
is a painting by Giampietrino, currently owned by the Royal Academy of Arts in London,
UK, and the other one, by Cesare da Sesto, at the Church of St. Ambrogio in
Ponte Capriasca, Switzerland.
The Last Supper, Giampietrino
The Last Supper, Cesare da Sesto
This painting is often cited or
referenced in various culture and art sectors, and here are some notable
examples:
An oil on canvas copy painted by Andrea Solari (c. 1520) is on display in
the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of the Tongerlo Abbey in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Last Supper, Andrea Solari
Giacomo Raffaelli, the Roman mosaic
artist, made a life-sized copy, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, which is in
the Minoritenkirche in Vienna.
The Last Supper, Giacomo Raffaelli
In 1955, Salvador Dalí painted
The Sacrament of the Last Supper, with Jesus portrayed as blond and clean
shaven, pointing the torso upward in the sky with his finger while all the apostles
gathered around the table heads bowed.
The Sacrament of the Last Supper, Salvador Dali
In 1986, Andy Warhol was
commissioned to produce a series of paintings based on the Last Supper, which
was initially exhibited in Milan, which became his last series of paintings before
his death.
An image of a series of The Last Supper, Andy Warhol
In 1988, Susan Dorothea White painted
The First Supper showing 13 women from all regions of the world, and the woman in
the position of Da Vinci’s Jesus figure in this painting was an Australian
aboriginal.
The First Supper, Susan Dorothea White (1988)
Also, the Last Supper was a
subject of many speculations to many people, especially since the publication
of Dan Brown's novel “The Da Vinci Code (2003),” which claimed that the figure
on the right side of Jesus was actually Mary Magdalene, the speculations were more
amplified.
First US edition cover, "The Da Vinci Code", Dan Brown
However, art historians hold that it is just due to the unique characteristic
of Da Vinci, which blurs the distinction of the sexes, and the figure is the
apostle John.
Italian musician Giovanni Maria
Pala suggested that if five lines are drawn across the painting, the positions
of the apostles' hands and loaves of bread on the table can be interpreted as musical
notes. Then reading from right to left as was characteristic of Da Vinci's
writing, they form a musical composition for about 40-second duration.
Musical notes, Giovanni Maria Pala
Thank you.
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