Lecture 20: The High Renaissance—Leonardo da Vinci
Last Supper (c. 1480) in the refectory of the church of the Ognissanti in
Florence. In Leonardo’s painting, the apostles are responding to something
that has been said—Christ’s announcement that “one of you will betray
me.” Other depictions of the Last Supper may also show a response to that
declaration, but it is inward, contemplative, or disbelieving. More frequently,
the Last Supper is treated as a sacramental, not a dramatic, occasion because
the ritual of the Mass is deemed more important than the human drama.Leonardo showed a range of response to this statement by painting each
apostle with a character-revealing reaction—anger, astonishment, fear,
gesture of devotion, or self-doubt. Only one of them makes no assertive
response to the declaration—Judas, who has already accepted payment to
betray Jesus. In previous representations of the Last Supper, Judas is placed
alone on the near side of the table, so that the viewer has no doubt about his
identity. Instead, Leonardo includes him with the others. But Judas shrinks
back, his right forearm on the table, the money bag grasped in his hand. No
other apostle’s arms—only hands—are on the table. Only Judas’s face is in
partial shadow, and his head is lower than any other. His is body smaller; he
shrinks from the words that he alone, of all the apostles, knows to be true.
Judas’s head is grouped with those of Peter and John. Christ’s simple pose is
complex in detail and meaning—he is silent, sad, and submissive. His right
hand extends toward Judas, whose hand is near his. Christ’s hand is palm
down, accusing Judas, “The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the
table.” At the same time, Christ’s right hand indicates the glass of wine, the
symbol of his blood used in the Mass, while his left hand extends toward the
bread, the symbol of his body.The triangular pose of Christ is a reference to the Trinity, an emblematic
abstraction of his words, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” The
hand with fore¿ nger pointing straight upward to the right of Christ belongs to
Thomas, whose probing ¿ nger veri¿ ed the physical resurrection of Christ and,
here, pointing to heaven, is a harbinger of the physical ascension. Leonardo’s
The Last Supper is a ruin. He was not a fresco painter, and he painted on this
wall (an outside wall, with no room on the other side to prevent the incursion
of water) with a mixture of oil paint and tempera. The paint did not adhere
well to the wall and was decaying even during Leonardo’s lifetime. In spite