smiling secretly ... not in an arti¿ cial manner, but as though unconsciously
... and accompanied by ... certain movements of the eyes.”
The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498, refectory) belongs to an earlier moment
in Leonardo’s career, shortly after he had begun work on the Madonna of
the Rocks. The story of the Last Supper, recounted in all the Gospels, was
a celebration of the Jewish feast of Passover, which for Christians was
accorded a new meaning. Mural paintings, usually frescoes, of the Last
Supper often were painted in the refectories (dining halls) of monasteries,
where the monks would contemplate the Last Supper of the Lord, which was
the prototype of the Mass, the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The painting spans the end wall of a long room,
and it is designed so that the space in which
Christ and his apostles have gathered looks like
an extension of the architecture of the refectory
itself. At the front of this painted space is the
dinner table, its white tablecloth virtually
identical with the wall surface.
The recession of the side walls is measured by
wall hangings. Although very dark today, they
were representations of tapestries with an overall
À oral design. The right wall is illuminated; the
left is in shadow. The ceiling of the room also
contributes to the illusion of recession, because
it is painted as if coffered and the coffers follow the rules of perspective. The
rear wall of the mural is pierced by three windows with a view onto a distant
landscape. The center window, behind Christ, has a semicircular pediment,
suggestive of a halo. The ¿ gure of Christ, his outstretched arms touching the
table, forms a triangle. The 12 apostles are divided, ¿ rst, into two groups
of six to each side and, second, into subgroups of three. Each subgroup is
tightly knit compositionally. Scanning the row of heads, there is a wave-like
arrangement, surging and ebbing, contained by the two apostles on either
end who close the composition.
The apostles are agitated, and this emotion sets this interpretation of the
subject apart from previous works. Compare this to Domenico Ghirlandaio’s
Leonardo’s The
Last Supper is a
ruin. He was not
a fresco painter,
and he painted on
this wall ... with a
mixture of oil paint
and tempera.