The Last Supper Essay

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Recommended: Compare the Last Supper by Tintoretto, Veronese, or Leonardo da Vinci

THE LAST SUPPER- LEONARDO DA VINCI (1497)

“ The last Supper” is a fresco made by Leonardo Da Vinci at the end of the 15th Century. The dimensions of the fresco are enormous (460x880cm). Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan, commissioned it as a decoration for the refectory of the convent Santa Maria delle Grazie.
The time period portrayed is the Last Supper of Christ and his apostles, in Jerusalem, during the celebration of the Jewish Easter.
This theme was really common during the 15th century and lots of artists portrayed it following a common system: Jesus is always portrayed at the center of the composition with all the apostles around him except for the one who is going to betray on him, Judas, who is sitting in front of him. Judas …show more content…

The painting of Del Castagno is more into an theological vision of the reality: The background reminds us the Ancient Greeks with all the decorations in marble, every figure in the painting has an halo over their had and moreover the fact that Judas is sitting on the other side of the table reminds us the Holy Betrayal.
The painting of Leonardo is shifting more to the Humanism where the human being is the center of the Universe, in fact he didn’t respect the canons at all: Judas sat on the same side of the table as Jesus. This fact means that the Artist didn’t want to portray a holy act, but a common one: the betrayal of a friend. Moreover any of the figures have a halo, and this fact makes us see them more like human beings and not like holy ones. Although the light sky, that we see through the windows is kind of a halo for Jesus.
In the painting Jesus Christ is portrayed while giving the Eucharist to the apostles. The Eucharist is the act of Jesus of sharing and blessing the wine and the bread for his last supper. During the portrayed moment Jesus was also pronouncing some of the most famous verses of the Christian Religion “ Tomorrow at midnight, one of you is going to betray on

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