The Last Supper Analysis

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For my final paper, I picked Leonardo da Vinci and his famous depiction of “The Last Supper” during the Renaissance period in European history. The origins of Renaissance emerged in Florence, Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. It reached its pinnacle in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Western European culture experienced a rebirth of Classical learning and values. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This period regarded as the cultural bridge between the middle Ages and modern history. The new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature. …show more content…

A huge element to the mural is Leonardo’s use of color. Jesus persona is illuminated and given much more light than the others, but light and dark are not the extend of what makes this painting unforgettable. Most of the disciples as well as Jesus are wearing blue emphasizing a sense of unity. Jesus is the only one wearing bright shade of reddish/orange but many think it may have been the foreshadowing for the tragic events. The table they are eating on is also draped with white cloth, a symbolic color to show purity and emotional cleanliness of Christ. Leonardo employs a fully frontal One-point perspective system. This system focuses our attention on Christ, since the perspective lines almost as rays of light radiating from Christ head. Representing the effects of color and light in creating believable space. The clarity and contrast between light and dark emphasize the foreground elements. The small details of the mountains in the far background, the doorway, and the clouds in the sky commendably difficult to paint. The object farther away appear less distinct and often bluer in color. Varieties of lines including wide, vertical, horizontal, thick, curved indicating the edge of a two-dimensional flat shape and three-dimensional form of the rectangular table, flat surface wall, and the dining room ceiling. Lines are frequently used to outline shapes, forms and space. The volume, movement, and patterns can all be created using line in both 2D and 3D such as objects on the table, doorway, rectangular table, and the simple artistic effect of the dining room

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