Leonardo's Last Supper

Before and after Leonardo's 'Last Supper', from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first , there have been countless recreations and representations of the ceremony of Holy Thursday from Renaissance artists commissioned for refectories to modern artists such as Andy Warhol re-printing Leonardo's 'Last Supper' to add another layer of meaning and so forth. This essay, however, will discuss how Salvador Dali's 'Sacrament of the Last Supper' constructs meaning through comparing the symbolism and visual composition within Leonardo's 'Last Supper' and Dali's work. The subject matter of the Last Supper was popular in the fifteenth century within monasteries and covenants where nuns and monks where made to believe they were sharing a meal with Jesus

Similarly to Renaissance works, Dali's composition is separated into foreground action and background. There is balance created within the symmetrical figure and rhythm created through the repetition of the same figure either sides of Christ. Dali developed the painting in accordance to complex mathematical ratios by Renaissance scientists and Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras.

Dalí explained that he "wanted to materialise the maximum of luminous and Pythagorean instantaneousness based on the celestial communion of the number twelve: twelve hours of the day—twelve months of the year—the twelve pentagons of the dodecahedron—twelve signs of the zodiac around the sun—the twelve apostles around Christ."

The figures surrounding Jesus are important in the context of the last supper as it's his apostles. Though in Leonardo's interpretation of he displays the revealing of the betrayal, showing each individual apostle's emotion and personality and distinguishing between them visually. What makes Dali's interpretation interesting is the fact that you are unable to decipher each apostle and what's emphasised is their actions of prayer and directing their reverence to the alter rather than Christ which is opposing to Leonardo's work where the attention is drawn to Christ. The un-identifiable figures show the worship and celebration in Mass which reflects the reality of worship in heaven. The search and discovery of the 'divine' is fundamental for one's soul and Dali shows this through his